# Binary String Types

This page describes binary string types, including `BINARY`, `VARBINARY`, and `BLOB` types.

## BINARY

`BINARY` is a fixed-length string type in SingleStore. `BINARY` requires `LENGTH` bytes of memory. `binary(0) not null` allocates 1 byte.

| Data Type      | Size             | Size (Not Null) |
| -------------- | ---------------- | --------------- |
| BINARY(LENGTH) | LENGTH + 1 bytes | LENGTH bytes    |

`CHAR` is another fixed-length string type in SingleStore. For more details, refer to [String Types](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/data-types/string-types.md).

## VARBINARY

`VARBINARY` is a variable-length string type in SingleStore. The data for this data type is stored in memory for rowstore tables and the main table structure holds pointers to the memory locations.

`VARBINARY` fields store data verbatim, regardless of whether they are valid Unicode strings. Sorting and comparing a `VARBINARY` uses the exact binary representation.

The total space consumed by a particular string value is:

* The byte length of the string.
* An 8-byte overhead for the pointer.
* A 4-byte overhead for storing the length. There is no 4-byte overhead if the field is nullable.

> **📝 Note**: One exception is values less than 7 bytes long. Those small values are stored directly in the pointer area.

To reduce memory fragmentation, memory for variable-sized data is allocated from a fixed list in multiples of eight (16, 32, 40, etc.), but not every multiple of eight. Variable data of other lengths are rounded up to the next nearest multiple of eight within the list.  For example, a ten (10) byte string would be allocated sixteen (16) bytes.

| Data Type | Max Length  |
| --------- | ----------- |
| VARBINARY | 65533 bytes |

`VARCHAR` and `LONGTEXT` are other variable-length string types in SingleStore. For more details, refer to [String Types](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/data-types/string-types.md).

## BLOB Types

The `BLOB` type is a form of `VARBINARY` string type. (The `BLOB` type has no connection to columnstore segments, also known as blobs.  See [Understanding Sort Key Selection](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/create-a-database/understanding-sort-key-selection.md) for more information on columnstore blobs.) The data for this data type is stored in memory for rowstore tables and the main table structure holds pointers to the memory locations.

While `BLOB` data types operate the same for most English-language alphanumeric strings, there are several important differences in their behavior. For example, `BLOB` fields store data verbatim, regardless of whether they are valid Unicode strings. Sorting and comparing a `BLOB` uses the exact binary representation.

> **📝 Note**: There are several variants of the `BLOB` type, which are listed below. Aside from their maximum lengths, there is *no practical difference* between these types in SingleStore, including performance or memory efficiency. They are implemented solely for backward compatibility with MySQL syntax.

| Name       | Max Length   | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
| ---------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| LONGBLOB   | 4GB          | VARBINARY - While the DDL will allow you to specify a size of up to 4GB, there is an internal limit applied when assigning a value to a LONGBLOB field that caps the maximum size of a single value to`max_allowed_packet`. This is 100MB by default and can be set to up to 1GB. |
| MEDIUMBLOB | 16 MB        | VARBINARY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| BLOB       | 65,535 bytes | VARBINARY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| TINYBLOB   | 225 bytes    | VARBINARY                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |

Unlike variable-length `TEXT` types, comparison operators treat trailing spaces differently when used with a variable-length `BLOB` type.  Also, `BLOB` type uses the binary character set while `TEXT` uses UTF8 by default, but can be changed.

***

Modified at: July 23, 2025

Source: [/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/data-types/binary-string-types/](https://docs.singlestore.com/db/v9.1/reference/sql-reference/data-types/binary-string-types/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)