Please start any new threads on our new site at https://forums.sqlteam.com. We've got lots of great SQL Server experts to answer whatever question you can come up with.

 All Forums
 SQL Server 2008 Forums
 Transact-SQL (2008)
 Storing text and binary in same column

Author  Topic 

dkekesi
Starting Member

38 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-14 : 11:25:24
Hi All,
I need to import documents into SQL database. The problem is that some documents are binary and some documents are text based (csv, xml, txt, etc.).
Can they be stored in a single varbinary(max) column and retrieved properly? If not what is the best practice if I do not know in advance if the file will be binary or text (and I do not want to examine before loading them into SQL).
Thanks for your kind help in advance.

Best Regards,
Daniel

nigelrivett
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

3385 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-14 : 11:29:47
Then you wil have to treat them as binary. As to being retrieved it depends on how you load and extract but a binary should end up with what you started with.

==========================================
Cursors are useful if you don't know sql.
SSIS can be used in a similar way.
Beer is not cold and it isn't fizzy.
Go to Top of Page

sunitabeck
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

5155 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-14 : 12:01:16
You may want to consider using filestream storage. I have not experimented much with it; these two pages have a lot of information about the pros and cons, how and why etc:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc949109(v=sql.100).aspx
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/an-introduction-to-sql-server-filestream/

Since you are not able to determine the type of the file - whether it is binary or not, the only other option that I can think of is what Nigel suggested.

Go to Top of Page

dkekesi
Starting Member

38 Posts

Posted - 2011-04-18 : 01:33:23
quote:
Originally posted by sunitabeck

You may want to consider using filestream storage. I have not experimented much with it; these two pages have a lot of information about the pros and cons, how and why etc:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc949109(v=sql.100).aspx
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/an-introduction-to-sql-server-filestream/

Since you are not able to determine the type of the file - whether it is binary or not, the only other option that I can think of is what Nigel suggested.




Nigel, Sunitabeck, thanks for the help. Filestream looks very promising in our case.

Best Regards,
Daniel
Go to Top of Page
   

- Advertisement -