What's the difference between MySQL bit vs binary?

Question

We can store binary values using either binary or bit (up to 64 bits).

What is the difference between using binary(n) vs using bit(m) (where n = 8 × m)?

Are they recognized as the same thing by MySQL?

(Assuming using MySQL >= 5.0.3.)

Answer 1

You can store bits using BIT or BINARY - as you want. The BIT data type may be more usable in logic operations.

There is a small difference in storage:

• BINARY(M) requies exact number of bytes - M
• the length of the BIT type may vary, find more information here - Data Type Storage Requirements.