Question

I have a code that generates UID:

        $time_low = str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);
        $time_mid = str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);

        $time_high_and_version = mt_rand(0, 255);
        $time_high_and_version = $time_high_and_version & hexdec('0f');
        $time_high_and_version = $time_high_and_version ^ hexdec('40');  // Sets the version number to 4 in the high byte
        $time_high_and_version = str_pad(dechex($time_high_and_version), 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);

        $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved = mt_rand(0, 255);
        $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved = $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved & hexdec('3f');
        $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved = $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved ^ hexdec('80');  // Sets the variant for this GUID type to '10x'
        $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved = str_pad(dechex($clock_seq_hi_and_reserved), 2, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);

        $clock_seq_low = str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);
        $node = str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT) . str_pad(dechex(mt_rand(0, 65535)), 4, '0', STR_PAD_LEFT);
        $guid = $time_low . '-' . $time_mid . '-' . $time_high_and_version . $clock_seq_hi_and_reserved . '-' . $clock_seq_low . '-' . $node;

It generates a string like: 011FFF33-CA4A-44E8-8CD5-7344D8E94344. When I read it from MS SQL 2008 database, I get binary string like: 3ÿJÊèDŒÕsDØéCD. How can I read it as hex string instead of binary string? Thanks!

Answer 1

cast it to a string in the select call – a uid is stored in raw bits, not the nice hex string you see. the mssql driver is probably passing those raw bits back and not converting to a readable hex string itself, so do it in the query.