> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/binary-operator.md).

# BINARY Operator

This page describes the BINARY operator. For details about the data type, see [Binary Data Type](/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/binary.md).

## Syntax

```bnf
BINARY
```

## Description

The `BINARY` operator casts the string following it to a binary string. This is an easy way to force a column comparison to be done byte by byte rather than character by character. This causes the comparison to be case sensitive even if the column isn't defined as [BINARY](/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/binary.md) or [BLOB](/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/blob.md).

`BINARY` also causes trailing spaces to be significant.

## Examples

```sql
SELECT 'a' = 'A';
+-----------+
| 'a' = 'A' |
+-----------+
|         1 |
+-----------+

SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'A';
+------------------+
| BINARY 'a' = 'A' |
+------------------+
|                0 |
+------------------+

SELECT 'a' = 'a ';
+------------+
| 'a' = 'a ' |
+------------+
|          1 |
+------------+

SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'a ';
+-------------------+
| BINARY 'a' = 'a ' |
+-------------------+
|                 0 |
+-------------------+
```

## See Also

* [Operator Precedence](/docs/server/reference/sql-structure/operators/operator-precedence.md)

<sub>*This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from*</sub> [<sub>*fill\_help\_tables.sql*</sub>](https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/main/scripts/fill_help_tables.sql)

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