Question

I have a binary field in SQL Server which I want to read one byte at time in a SQL function. In code I would use a byte array. Is there an equivalent in SQL?

I couldn’t find anything with google.

Answer 1

The SUBSTRING function should be sufficient. A quick example, assuming table MyTable with column SomeData, binary(10) not null:

DECLARE
  @OneByte  binary(1)
 ,@Loop     int


SET @Loop = 0
WHILE @Loop < 10
 BEGIN
    SET @Loop = @Loop + 1

    SELECT @OneByte = substring(SomeData, @Loop, 1)
     from MyTable

    --  Process accordingly
 END

There are fancier set-based ways to do this, but for short values this should be adequate.