Question

I’m trying to find specific lines of data from a BINARY column.

Example data in the BINARY(2000) column:

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

This data has 1 result of 2201 somewhere in it. (try searching the data for 2201 and you will get 1.)

Now I’m trying to use this query: (it should give me 512 rows of results)

SELECT * 
FROM table
WHERE binaryfield LIKE '%2201%'
ORDER BY key

But no luck in getting results.

Notes: 2201 actually is 290. I’m trying to look for the decimal value 290 which is 2201 in hex in the data that is in endian.

Update:

Tried this query (searching for: 15584)

SELECT *
FROM CHAR_DATA1
WHERE CHAR_DATA LIKE '%'+CAST(0xE03C AS nvarchar(MAX))+'%'
ORDER BY CHAR_KEY;

Now its returning almost all rows. Even manually checked the rows for E03C but none was found, but when running the query it gets returned. very odd. ideas?

Answer 1

The LIKE operator only works on character data types. Try doing a CAST to a string, like this:

SELECT * 
  FROM table
 WHERE CAST(binaryfield AS nvarchar(MAX)) LIKE '%290%'
 ORDER BY key;

— or —

SELECT * 
  FROM table
 WHERE CAST(binaryfield AS nvarchar(MAX)) LIKE '%'+CAST(0x2201 AS nvarchar(MAX))+'%'
 ORDER BY key;

Also, if you want to look at a subset of the data (e.g. the file header), you can do something like this:

SELECT * 
  FROM table
 WHERE CAST(LEFT(binaryfield, 8) AS nvarchar(MAX)) -- Only compares the first 8 bytes
         LIKE '%'+CAST(0x2201 AS nvarchar(MAX))+'%'
    OR CAST(SUBSTRING(binaryfield, 34, 4) AS nvarchar(MAX)) -- Compares bytes 34-38
         LIKE '%'+CAST(0x2201 AS nvarchar(MAX))+'%'
 ORDER BY key;

---

Edit

Regarding your updated question, does this give you the results that you’re expecting:

 SELECT *
   FROM CHAR_DATA1
  WHERE CHAR_DATA COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
          LIKE '%'+CAST(0xE03C AS nvarchar(MAX))+'%'
 ORDER BY CHAR_KEY;

You shouldn’t have to cast/convert the character data to binary.