HEX_DECODE_STRING¶

Syntax¶

HEX_DECODE_STRING(<input>)

Arguments¶

input

A hex-encoded string expression. Typically the input was created by a call to HEX_ENCODE.

Returns¶

The returned value is a string (VARCHAR).

Examples¶

The following decodes a sequence of hexadecimal digits into the corresponding word:

SELECT HEX_DECODE_STRING('536E6F77666C616B65');

-----------------------------------------+
 HEX_DECODE_STRING('536E6F77666C616B65') |
-----------------------------------------+
 Snowflake                               |
-----------------------------------------+

The hexadecimal digits A-F can be uppercase or lowercase. The following statement uses lowercase letters but produces the same result as the preceding statement:

SELECT HEX_DECODE_STRING('536e6f77666c616b65');

-----------------------------------------+
 HEX_DECODE_STRING('536E6F77666C616B65') |
-----------------------------------------+
 Snowflake                               |
-----------------------------------------+

This shows another example of using HEX_DECODE_STRING:

Create a table and data:

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CREATE TABLE binary_table (v VARCHAR, b BINARY);
INSERT INTO binary_table (v, b) 
    SELECT 'HELLO', HEX_DECODE_BINARY(HEX_ENCODE('HELLO'));

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Now run a query to show that we can retrieve the data:

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SELECT v, b, HEX_DECODE_STRING(TO_VARCHAR(b)) FROM binary_table;
+-------+------------+----------------------------------+
| V     | B          | HEX_DECODE_STRING(TO_VARCHAR(B)) |
|-------+------------+----------------------------------|
| HELLO | 48454C4C4F | HELLO                            |
+-------+------------+----------------------------------+

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