diff between varbinary(max) and image

• sharmila_kb

  SSC Enthusiast

  Points: 173

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  December 28, 2007 at 6:35 am

  #177814

  Hi,

  When using 'image' datatype earlier to store blob values(a huge data file) the select blob column used to return a hex string which could easily be converted back into the original value(the data file), but now with varbinary(max) the hex string returned is different and converting it to ascii returns some funny characters..

  was wondering if any mistake is being done in the storage or if it was a special feature of varbinary(max) to compress data in a diff way than image??

  thanks

• Steve Jones - SSC Editor

  SSC Guru

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  December 28, 2007 at 9:46 am

  #763327

  The text/image types put stuff in separate extents by default. You can change with the text in row option and if you do, I don't think there's a difference with varchar(max). From what I understand, it works like varchar until you run over 8000, then it's converted to the same type of storage as text/image.