How to read varbinary of SQL as string in C#?

Question

I have an web application which reads varbinary from SQL as a byte array in code. Basically it does a ExecuteScalar of the column and returns it as a byte array.

I am now doing a mini version of the application as a Windows application. For this, I am trying to skip the DB connection. I am directly inputting the varbinary value from SQL to a RichTextBox and trying to read it as a byte array. However, I do not get the same byte array. What am I doing wrong and how should I proceed ?

How exactly are you entering binary data into a richtextbox? — Rhys Jones, Mar 09 '15 at 09:45
@Izzy I get the details as an arraylist and Serialize it using BinaryFormatter class. Not sure if I answered your question though. Let me know if you need more info. — Divakar, Mar 09 '15 at 11:10
@RhysJones I am just copying the varbinary value from DB and pasting it into a textbox string. — Divakar, Mar 09 '15 at 11:11
possible duplicate of [SQL Server converting varbinary to string](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12139073/sql-server-converting-varbinary-to-string) — Rhys Jones, Mar 09 '15 at 11:22

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '15 at 13:42

I got it using this piece of code

    string hex = richTextBox1.Text
    int NumberChars = hex.Length;
    byte[] bytes = new byte[NumberChars / 2];
    for (int i = 0; i < NumberChars; i += 2)
    bytes[i / 2] = Convert.ToByte(hex.Substring(i, 2).ToString(), 16);
    return bytes;

How to read varbinary of SQL as string in C#?

1 Answers1