Binary.ToText

Binary

Encodes binary data as Base64 or hexadecimal text.

Syntax

Binary.ToText(binary as nullable binary, optional encoding as nullable number) as nullable text

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`binary`	`binary`	Yes	The binary value to encode as text.
`encoding`	`number`	No	The encoding format: BinaryEncoding.Base64 (default) or BinaryEncoding.Hex.

Return Value

text — The text representation of the binary value.

Remarks

Binary.ToText converts a binary value into a text string using either Base64 or hexadecimal encoding. This is the inverse of Binary.FromText.

BinaryEncoding.Base64 (default) — produces a standard Base64 string.
BinaryEncoding.Hex — produces a hexadecimal string (uppercase).

Common use cases include encoding file content for embedding in JSON payloads or generating checksums for display.

Examples

Example 1: Encode text as Base64

let
    Original = "Power Query",
    AsBinary = Binary.From(Original),
    Base64 = Binary.ToText(AsBinary, BinaryEncoding.Base64)
in
    #table({"Original", "Base64"}, {{Original, Base64}})

Applied Steps

The final output — a single-row table showing the original text alongside its Base64-encoded form.

	Original	Base64
1	Power Query	UG93ZXIgUXVlcnk=

Example 2: Encode text as hexadecimal

let
    Original = "Hello",
    AsBinary = Binary.From(Original),
    Hex = Binary.ToText(AsBinary, BinaryEncoding.Hex)
in
    #table({"Original", "Hex"}, {{Original, Hex}})

Applied Steps

The final output — a single-row table showing the original text alongside its hex-encoded form.

	Original	Hex
1	Hello	48656C6C6F

Compatibility

✓ Power BI Desktop✓ Power BI Service✓ Excel Desktop✓ Excel Online✓ Dataflows✓ Fabric Notebooks

Contributors