VARBINARY (TSQL Datatype)

Is a variable-length binary datatype, with precision being the maximum length in bytes.

Syntax

VARBINARY [( precision )]

Range

The range of precision is 1 to 8000.

When precision is not specified in declarations, the default is 1.
When precision is not specified inside a CAST function, the default is 30.

The storage size of a varbinary data is not affected by the value of precision. Only the actual size of the data consumes memory or disk space.

Literal Binary String

A literal binary string begins with the prefix 0xor 0X, followed by pairs of hexadecimal digits:

0xab
0x1234
0xAB1234
0x         -- empty binary string

Examples

DECLARE @a VARBINARY(100) = 0xEEFF;
DECLARE @b VARBINARY(100);
DECLARE @c VARBINARY;      -- default precision is 1

SET @b = 0x1234abcd;
SET @c = 0x78

PRINT @a + @b + @c;

SET @c = 0x56789a;  -- the assignment SILENTLY TRUNCATES the binary literal, as precision of @c is 1
PRINT @c;

-- if precision is omitted in a CAST, the default precision is 30
PRINT CAST(0x112233445566778899001122334455667788990011223344556677889900abcdef AS VARBINARY);

The result is:

0xeeff1234abcd78
0x56
0x112233445566778899001122334455667788990011223344556677889900     <--- truncated to 30 bytes

Guide