Hi All When storing an encrypted field in an SQL Server Database what's the ideal data type to use to store it? I am attempting to store an image converted to base64 which is then encrypted and inserted into a varbinary(MAX) field in the database. However, when it inserts into that database it looks completely different from the output I see on the screen. For example after the base64 conversion and encryption it stores the field like this : 0x33F104E49F83DC517A3001472C247C5764CEF0C5 BUT on the screen it shows this. Am I storing it using the wrong data type in the database ??

My initial thought is: Have you tried to get it back out? and did that give you the results you expect? In essence I think I am saying - as long as you put it in and get it out and use - does it matter if the string representation isn't exactly as you expect? And just as I wrote that, I am thinking... "But if I don't actually know for certain what is supposed to look like at every step - is each step actually doing what I think it is". I am a living paradox at times! 😉

Hey @gavinbaumanis I just stored the encrypt and decrypt values in the database as nvarchar(MAX) which seems to have done the trick 😬

Awesome! and I bet it happened less than a minute after you posted, right?

😂 😂 always the way

I did nothing - but will accept your thanks with the greatest humility....

looks like you don't actually need

nvarchar

and

varchar

will still work if you care about saving a few bytes

Ah ok cheers @aliaspooryorik

nvarchar is probably better for unicode support with encrypted characters that could potentially be non-english

yeah - I wouldn't worry about it but sometimes row size is an issue