BINARY

The result of the function is a fixed-length binary string. If the first argument can be null, the result can be null; if the first argument is null, the result is the null value.

string-expression

A string-expression whose value must be a built-in character string, graphic string, binary string, or row ID data type.

integer

An integer constant that specifies the length attribute for the resulting binary string. The value must be between 1 and 32766.

If integer is not specified:

• If the string-expression is the empty string constant, the length attribute of the result is 1.
• Otherwise, the length attribute of the result is the same as the length attribute of the first argument, unless the argument is a graphic string. In this case, the length attribute of the result is twice the length attribute of the argument.

The actual length is the same as the length attribute of the result. If the length of the string-expression is less than the length of the result, the result is padded with hexadecimal zeroes up to the length of the result. If the length of the string-expression is greater than the length attribute of the result, truncation is performed. A warning (SQLSTATE 01004) is returned unless the first input argument is a character string and all the truncated characters are blanks, or the first input argument is a graphic string and all the truncated characters are double-byte blanks, or the first input argument is a binary string and all the truncated bytes are hexadecimal zeroes.