Base64 encoding in SQL Server 2005 T-SQL

Question

I\'d like to write a T-SQL query where I encode a string as a Base64 string. Surprisingly, I can\'t find any native T-SQL functions for doing Base64 encoding. Does a nativ

Answer 1

Here is the code for the functions that will do the work

-- To Base64 string
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_str_TO_BASE64]
(
    @STRING NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
    RETURN (
        SELECT
            CAST(N'' AS XML).value(
                  'xs:base64Binary(xs:hexBinary(sql:column("bin")))'
                , 'NVARCHAR(MAX)'
            )   Base64Encoding
        FROM (
            SELECT CAST(@STRING AS VARBINARY(MAX)) AS bin
        ) AS bin_sql_server_temp
    )
END
GO

-- From Base64 string
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_str_FROM_BASE64]
(
    @BASE64_STRING NVARCHAR(MAX)
)
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
    RETURN (
        SELECT 
            CAST(
                CAST(N'' AS XML).value('xs:base64Binary(sql:variable("@BASE64_STRING"))', 'VARBINARY(MAX)') 
            AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
            )   UTF8Encoding
    )
END

Example of usage:

DECLARE @CHAR NVARCHAR(256) = N'e.g., سلام جیران or В России'
SELECT [dbo].[fn_str_FROM_BASE64]([dbo].[fn_str_TO_BASE64](@CHAR)) as converted