Which is heavier, base 64 string or hexadecimal or binary

Question

I have this app which stores images in base 64 string in database. Storing in disk is no option here. However,

I would want to choose the lightest between base 64, hex and binary. Can anyone help, please.
I also appreciate conversion from base 64 to either of the other two.

I am using PHP

If by "binary" you mean dual/bitwise representation, the expansion ratio would be 1:8. (And hex is 1:2, for base64 it's 1:1.3̅) — mario, May 13 '15 at 20:25
Thanks @php_purest, but I have said using disk is no option. — Stephen Adelakun, May 13 '15 at 20:25
What DB are you using? Possible dup: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1636877/how-can-i-store-and-retrieve-images-from-a-mysql-database-using-php — wrschneider, May 13 '15 at 20:26
Why can't you use: file_put_contents Is it disabled on the server? — a coder, May 13 '15 at 20:30
@php_purest, no it is not disabled. The app dictates that I use DB to store images. — Stephen Adelakun, May 13 '15 at 20:31
@wrschneider99, the question you pointed to is not exactly the same. I am not asking HOW to store image in DB. I have already done that. And, it is working. I only need to consider a LIGHTER option. — Stephen Adelakun, May 13 '15 at 20:33
back ends are back ends, you can always write a tiny image storage unit on the back end. — a coder, May 13 '15 at 20:33
I know that. In fact, I did that successfully many times. But THIS TIME, I just need to use DB. — Stephen Adelakun, May 13 '15 at 20:34

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '15 at 14:30

0

Binary would hold the data in the smallest size, then base64 then hex.

Base64 to binary

$binarydata = base64_decode($bas64data);

binary to hex

$hexdata = bin2hex($binarydata);

Note with binary storage you can't just echo out the image data in an <img> tag, you have to set up some kind of viewing page or just re-encode it in base64.

answered May 15 '15 at 14:30

Musa

96,336
17
118
137

Thanks a lot for this straightforward answer. I'll try the solution and then comeback to upvote if works. – Stephen Adelakun May 18 '15 at 15:54

Which is heavier, base 64 string or hexadecimal or binary

1 Answers1