Blob type

Apache Cassandra blob data type represents a constant hexadecimal number.

The Apache Cassandra™ blob data type represents a constant hexadecimal number defined as 0[xX](hex)+ where hex is an hexadecimal character, such as [0-9a-fA-F]. For example, 0xcafe. The maximum theoretical size for a blob is 2GB. The practical limit on blob size, however, is less than 1 MB, ideally even smaller. A blob type is suitable for storing a small image or short string.

Blob conversion functions

These functions convert the native types into binary data (blob):

typeAsBlob(type)
blobAsType

For every native, nonblob type supported by CQL, the typeAsBlob function takes a argument of type type and returns it as a blob. Conversely, the blobAsType function takes a 64-bit blob argument and converts it to a bigint value.

This example shows how to use bitintAsBlob:

CREATE TABLE bios ( user_name varchar PRIMARY KEY, 
   bio blob
 );

INSERT INTO bios (user_name, bio) VALUES ('fred', bigintAsBlob(3));
 
SELECT * FROM bios;
 
 user_name | bio
-----------+--------------------
      fred | 0x0000000000000003

This example shows how to use blobAsBigInt.

ALTER TABLE bios ADD id bigint;

INSERT INTO bios (user_name, id) VALUES ('fred', blobAsBigint(0x0000000000000003));

SELECT * FROM bios;

 user_name | bio                | id
-----------+--------------------+----
      fred | 0x0000000000000003 |  3