Converting CHAR and VARCHAR to BINARY or VARBINARY

Jim Knicely authored this tip. As of Vertica 9.1.1, explicit coercion (casting) from CHAR and VARCHAR data types to either BINARY or VARBINARY data types is supported! Example: Prior to Vertica 9.1.1: dbadmin=> CREATE TABLE test_coercion (c1 VARCHAR(100)); CREATE TABLE dbadmin=> INSERT INTO test_coercion SELECT ‘Convert me!’; OUTPUT ——– 1 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT c1::VARBINARY FROM test_coercion; ERROR 2366: Cannot cast type varchar to varbinary Using Vertica 9.1.1 and above: dbadmin=> CREATE TABLE test_coercion (c1 VARCHAR(100)); CREATE TABLE dbadmin=> INSERT INTO test_coercion SELECT ‘Convert me!’; OUTPUT ——– 1 (1 row) dbadmin=> SELECT c1::VARBINARY FROM test_coercion; c1 ————- Convert me! (1 row) Have fun!