How do I store binary data in MySQL?

Q: How do I store binary data in MySQL?

Solution:

The basic answer is in a BLOB data type / attribute domain. BLOB is short for Binary Large Object and that column data type is specific for handling binary data.

you should be aware that there are other binary data formats:
TINYBLOB/BLOB/MEDIUMBLOB/LONGBLOB
VARBINARY
BINARY
Each has their use cases. If it is a known (short) length (e.g. packed data) often times BINARY or VARBINARY will work. They have the added benefit of being able ton index on them.

For a table like this:

CREATE TABLE binary_data (
    id INT(4) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    description CHAR(50),
    bin_data LONGBLOB,
    filename CHAR(50),
    filesize CHAR(50),
    filetype CHAR(50)
);