User Guide

494 Chapter 3: ColdFusion Functions

BinaryDecode

Description

Converts a string to a binary object. Used to convert binary data that has been encoded into

string format back into binary data.

Returns

A binary object.

See also

BinaryEncode

, CharsetEncode, CharsetDecode

History

ColdFusion MX 7: Added this function.

Parameters

Usage

Use this function to convert a binary-encoded string representation of binary data back to a

binary object for use in your application. Binary data is often encoded as a string for transmission

over many Internet protocols, such as HTTP and SMTP, or for storage in a database.

Macromedia recommends that you use the

BinaryDecode function, not the

ToBinary(base64data) function, to convert Base64-encoded data to binary data in all new

applications.

See the following pages for additional information on handling binary data:

• cffile for loading and reading binary data in files

• cfwddx for serializing and deserializing binary data

• IsBinary for checking variables for binary format

• Len for determining the length of a binary object

Parameter Description

string A string containing encoded binary data.

binaryencoding A string specifying the algorithm used to encode the original binary data into a

string; must be one of the following:

• Hex: the characters 0-9 and A-F represent the hexadecimal value of each byte;

for example, 3A.

• UU: data is encoded using the UNIX UUencode algorithm.

• Base64: data is encoded using the Base64 algorithm, as specified by IETF RFC

2045, at www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2045.txt.