Bytes Functions and Operators​

A sequence of bytes representing raw data.

Bytes can be represented as a literal using this syntax: b''.

db> 

select b'Hello, world';

{b'Hello, world'}

db> 

select b'Hello,\x20world\x01';

{b'Hello, world\x01'}

There are also some generic functions that can operate on bytes:

db> 

select contains(b'qwerty', b'42');

{false}

Bytes are rendered as base64-encoded strings in JSON. When you cast a bytes value into JSON, that’s what you’ll get. In order to cast a json value into bytes, it must be a base64-encoded string.

db> 

select <json>b'Hello EdgeDB!';

{"\"SGVsbG8gRWRnZURCIQ==\""}

db> 

select <bytes>to_json("\"SGVsbG8gRWRnZURCIQ==\"");

{b'Hello EdgeDB!'}

Accesses a byte at a given index.

Examples:

db> 

select b'binary \x01\x02\x03\x04 ftw!'[2];

{b'n'}

db> 

select b'binary \x01\x02\x03\x04 ftw!'[8];

{b'\x02'}

Produces a bytes sub-sequence from an existing bytes value.

Examples:

db> 

select b'\x01\x02\x03\x04 ftw!'[2:-1];

{b'\x03\x04 ftw'}

db> 

select b'some bytes'[2:-3];

{b'me by'}

Concatenates two bytes values into one.

db> 

select b'\x01\x02' ++ b'\x03\x04';

{b'\x01\x02\x03\x04'}

Returns the specified bit of the bytes value.

When looking for the nth bit, this function will enumerate bits from least to most significant in each byte.

db> 
... 
... 

for n in {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
          8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 ,14, 15}
union bytes_get_bit(b'ab', n);

{1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0}