Reading binary columns

Question

I have a generic read routine that works great for every data type I have encountered so far.
But now I want to read a column that is defined as binary(20).
The read code is:
using (SqlDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
int ivalCount = 0;
while ( rdr.Read() )
while (ivalCount < iCount)
ne[ivalCount].Pt_Value = rdr[ivalCount].ToString();
ivalCount++;
The SQL table being read is:
name nvarchar(50) Unchecked
VEC nvarchar(50) Unchecked
stat smallint Checked
lan smallint Checked
unit smallint Checked
flags int Checked
area_offset int Checked
system_offset int Checked
device_offset int Checked
secondary_msg varchar(50) Checked
alarm_flags smallint Checked
pttype nchar(10) Checked
web_message_id varchar(50) Checked
web_point_status nvarchar(50) Checked
sockaddr_in binary(20) Checked
sockaddr_len int Checked
Unchecked
It works great except for the "binary(20)" field.
In MS SQL Server Management Studio, the field appears as:
0x02000400C0A80062000000000000000000000000
But the code that reads the field gets:
"System.Byte[]"
Which strikes me as odd that the return would be the data type.  I sort of half expected a hexAscii string from the "toString"
My main problem is I don't know what data type any field is before reading it.
So what is the "best" way to read in the binary block, store it as hexASCII, not knowing first that it is a binary block?
Recommendations?
Boyd
BDM

Answer 1

Hello,
You can try to use the SqlDataReader.GetDataTypeName method to get the data type of the specify column and then choose difference method to get the data of the column.
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.sqlclient.sqldatareader.getdatatypename(v=vs.110).aspx
Regards,
Fanny Liu
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Fanny Liu
TechNet Community Support