Firebird-5-Release-Notes | Changes To Literals | Full SQL Standard Binary String Literal Syntax

Data Definition Language (DDL)Procedural SQL (PSQL)

Full SQL standard binary string literal syntax

Adriano dos Santos Fernandes

Tracker ticket: #5588

The syntax of binary string literals was changed to support the full SQL standard syntax.This means a literal can contain spaces to separate hexadecimal characters, and it can be “interrupted” by whitespace or a comment.This can be used, for example, to make the hex string more readable by grouping characters, or to break up a long literal over several lines, or provide inline comments.

<binary string literal> ::=
  X <quote> [ <space>... ] [ { <hexit> [ <space>... ] <hexit> [ <space>... ] }... ] <quote>
    [ { <separator> <quote> [ <space>... ] [ { <hexit> [ <space>... ]
    <hexit> [ <space>... ] }... ] <quote> }... ]

— ISO/IEC 9075-2:2016 SQL - Part 2: Foundation

Examples

-- Group per byte (whitespace inside literal)
select _win1252 x'42 49 4e 41 52 59'
from RDB$DATABASE;
-- output: BINARY

-- whitespace between literal
select _win1252 x'42494e'
                 '415259'
from RDB$DATABASE;
-- output: BINARY

Note	The usage of the `_win1252` introducer in above example is a non-standard extension and equivalent to an explicit cast to a `CHAR` of appropriate length with character set WIN1252.