## Syntax
```mermaid
%%{init: {
'theme': 'base',
'flowchart': { 'padding': '7', 'nodeSpacing': '20', 'rankSpacing': '20' },
'themeVariables': {
'fontSize': '11px',
'fontFamily': 'Arial'
}
}}%%
flowchart LR
Start((START)) --> ASCII_TO_BLOB[ASCII_TO_BLOB]:::quoted
ASCII_TO_BLOB --> End((END))
```
## Purpose
The `ASCII_TO_BLOB` SQL function returns a binary object (`blob`) with each character in a text in ASCII character set (7-bit) converted to a single byte. See also [[BLOB_TO_TEXT]].
Parameters:
- Input: a text in ASCII character set (7-bit).
Returns: decimal.
## Examples
`ASCII_TO_BLOB` maps the ASCII character `1` to a blob and then to the corresponding hexadecimal value `31`:
```sql
select to_hex(ASCII_TO_BLOB('1'))
--------
31
```
`ASCII_TO_BLOB` maps the ASCII character text to a blob and then to a Unicode text:
```sql
select blob_to_text(ASCII_TO_BLOB('12345678'))
--------
12345678
```