The BYTES data type stores binary strings of variable length.
Aliases
In CockroachDB, the following are aliases for BYTES:
BYTEABLOB
Syntax
To express a byte array constant, see the section on
byte array literals for more
details. For example, the following three are equivalent literals for the same
byte array: b'abc', b'\141\142\143', b'\x61\x62\x63'.
In addition to this syntax, CockroachDB also supports using
string literals, including the
syntax '...', e'...' and x'....' in contexts where a byte array
is otherwise expected.
Size
The size of a BYTES value is variable, but it's recommended to keep values under 64 kilobytes to ensure performance. Above that threshold, write amplification and other considerations may cause significant performance degradation.
Example
CREATE TABLE bytes (a INT PRIMARY KEY, b BYTES);
-- explicitly typed BYTES literals
INSERT INTO bytes VALUES (1, b'\141\142\143'), (2, b'\x61\x62\x63'), (3, b'\141\x62\c');
-- string literal implicitly typed as BYTES
INSERT INTO bytes VALUES (4, 'abc');
SELECT * FROM bytes;
+---+-----+
| a | b |
+---+-----+
| 1 | abc |
| 2 | abc |
| 3 | abc |
| 4 | abc |
+---+-----+
(4 rows)
Supported Conversions
BYTES values can be
cast explicitly to
STRING. The conversion verifies that the byte array contains only
valid UTF-8 byte sequences; an error is reported otherwise.
STRING values can be cast explicitly to BYTES. This conversion
always succeeds.
See Also
Was this helpful?
