A BINARY vector represents each dimension as a single bit (0 or 1). The following statement is an example of declaring a 1024 dimension vector using the BINARY format:

VECTOR(1024, BINARY)

The main advantages of using the BINARY format are:

• The storage footprint of vectors can be reduced by a factor of 32 compared to the default FLOAT32 format.
• Distance computations between two vectors are up to 40 times faster.

The downside of using the BINARY format is the potential loss of accuracy. However, the loss is often not very substantial. BINARY vector accuracy is often greater than 90% compared to that of FLOAT32 vectors. Several third-party providers have added embedding models that have the ability to generate binary embeddings, including Cohere, Hugging Face, and Jina AI.

BINARY vectors are stored as packed UINT8 bytes (unsigned integer). This means that a single byte represents exactly 8 BINARY dimensions and no less.

The following is an example of a Cohere INT8 embedding and a UBINARY embedding. Note when considering this example that Oracle Database server works with the data provided in the VECTOR constructor as it is received. Any quantization logic necessary for processing the data into binary format should be handled by the client. The example is provided to help in understanding the concept.

INT8 Embedding of 1024 dimensions from Cohere embed-english-v3.0:
[25, 11, -99, -114, 13, -17, -59, 44, 65, 33, -50, -2, 28, -16, -6, -20, -33, 
49, -59, -50, 0, -82, -67, 10, 82, -2, -126, -28, -32, -69, -13, 120, 54, 4, 
-71, 24, 4, -37, -57, 34, 16, -7, 27, -74, -12, 13, 1, -24, 65, -24, 28, 46, 
25, -33, -25, 36, 3, -47, 12, -49, -17, 11, 53, 70, -18, 10, -8, 4, 0, -33, 
10, -3, 27, -24, -35, -24, 23, -32, 0, -4, -21, -7, -29, -48, -7, -28, -25, 
-8, 54, -7, 14, -8, 39, 78, 0, -13, 26, 2, 40, 27, -35, -26, 5, -23, 15, 72, 
-4, -5, 33, 14, 18, 11, 0, -6, 6, -16, -53, 56, -35, 15, -1, -8, 83, 28, -2, 
27, -34, -60, 36, 4, 14, 21, -69, 17, -22, 0, 16, -77, 29, 27, 26, 0, 81, 15, 
-90, 7, 22, -2, -26, -39, -31, -10, 2, 32, -30, 40, -71, 29, 2, 36, -72, -6, 
42, -16, -16, 6, 40, 30, 1, -31, -42, 31, 56, 18, 0, 9, 27, 59, 11, 38, 28, 
-30, 73, -10, -56, 6, 17, 87, 15, 1, 49, -33, -68, 0, 10, -49, 18, -10, 8, 12, 
52, -31, 7, -37, -25, -53, 9, -5, 72, 14, -37, -41, 30, -54, -60, 30, -62, 20, 
3, 7, 64, -7, 48, 16, 19, 1, -43, -18, -91, -6, -113, 104, 42, 61, -24, -15, 
20, -9, 4, 36, 27, 46, -30, -39, 43, -14, 53, -36, -4, 35, 74, 37, 1, -19, 62, 
12, -13, 8, -11, 21, -4, 96, 29, 17, -99, 2, -67, -32, -55, -8, 55, 16, -29, 
28, 47, 47, -77, 0, -24, 1, 1, 38, 28, -11, 2, -55, 4, 18, 42, 99, 98, 1, 17, 
18, -21, 4, 89, 66, -32, 17, 56, 14, -2, -45, 19, -30, 26, 14, 34, -36, 5, 74, 
50, 33, 47, -37, 34, 61, -8, -62, 46, 56, -55, 0, 33, 5, -72, -29, -48, 21, 40, 
22, 3, 39, -1, 10, 32, -47, 28, 19, 92, -5, -13, 2, 12, -21, -33, -9, 31, -2, 
-25, -20, -14, 1, 53, -34, -26, 17, 72, -35, -36, -26, -86, -20, 55, -4, -53, 
-14, 47, 26, 82, -3, -41, -18, -40, -94, 87, 3, -17, 38, 54, 17, 62, -23, 61, 
20, -4, 18, 37, 21, -37, -10, -43, -32, -40, -29, 43, 75, -44, -3, 47, 9, -10, 
29, -26, 55, 35, -17, 43, 37, -8, 19, 0, -32, -49, 43, -27, 16, -81, 34, 56, 
15, -33, -13, -30, -13, -28, 54, -61, -90, -45, -101, -52, -101, 5, 22, 7, 72, 
-30, 31, 27, 42, -47, -6, -30, -30, 42, 13, -23, 63, -84, -20, -17, 61, -40, 
35, 37, 21, -8, 110, 108, 26, -49, -1, -31, 8, 10, 7, 29, -67, -29, 72, 15, 11, 
4, -34, 12, 28, -48, -21, -81, 38, -29, 26, 4, 10, 29, -11, 26, -78, -51, -52, 
27, -92, -23, -5, -11, 31, 18, -33, -49, 7, -51, -35, -57, -14, 121, -8, 29, 25, 
70, -19, 29, 48, -41, 48, -18, 19, -18, -13, 46, 27, 47, 42, 1, -33, 20, -27, 8, 
-31, 31, 1, 0, 11, -4, 32, -65, -7, 9, -11, 15, 3, -34, 42, -15, -71, -5, 3, 8, 
-8, 22, -7, -70, 10, 21, -127, -114, 13, -11, 46, -13, -10, -10, 29, -59, 43, 
-1, -17, -21, 8, -15, 12, 1, -73, -26, -5, 6, 37, 23, 46, 73, 14, -74, 84, -2, 
-22, -6, 5, -7, -26, 28, -39, -23, -22, 14, 38, 0, -2, 41, 27, -65, 30, 3, -23, 
53, 86, 35, -32, -48, -15, 32, 21, -26, -48, -26, 32, 32, 4, -70, -72, -62, -28, 
-14, -86, -10, -63, 44, -68, -41, 27, -52, 33, -56, -30, 5, 84, -54, 16, -22, 
-20, 16, 34, 14, -25, 8, -14, -13, -28, -40, 16, 41, -5, -88, -35, 55, -82, 55, 
74, -55, -12, 58, 57, -83, -26, 55, 32, -6, 42, -14, 35, -5, -36, 84, -40, -29, 
7, -20, -17, 23, -20, -49, -48, 22, 49, -30, 35, 48, 5, 34, 17, 13, 30, 33, -38, 
-37, 10, -52, -24, 67, -15, -12, -3, -11, -46, -7, 32, 10, -46, 3, 18, -7, -26, 
0, -40, 23, -46, 89, 37, 3, -29, -51, -32, 49, -51, 9, 16, -47, -26, 14, 10, 14, 
-13, 11, 16, -18, 54, -24, 18, -14, -51, -89, -24, 20, 12, 2, 62, 13, 53, -22, 
2, 22, -14, 29, -9, 51, -42, -97, 28, 49, -4, -93, -17, -26, 46, 47, 33, -33, 
25, 81, -29, 5, 17, 24, 54, -10, -14, -2, 29, 17, -4, -47, 56, 4, 9, 30, -87, 
39, -16, 39, 67, -13, 37, 13, 67, 50, -16, -55, 8, 24, -50, -1, -36, -51, -20, 
-58, 11, -28, -22, -26, 16, 7, -17, 39, -9, -21, -9, -8, -18, 37, -47, -19, 36, 
-8, 6, -39, 58, -26, -37, 11, 86, 33, 67, -35, 25, -11, -7, -22, 20, 14, 8, 8, 
7, -30, -58, 37, -1, 16, -13, 89, -6, 81, -46, -37, -7, 9, -23, -11, -41, -13, 
18, -17, -4, -42, 0, 91, -128, 33, -18, -88, -84, -11, -62, 79, -34, -39, 54, 
-17, -14, 15, 79, -33, -4, 30, 5, 8, -55, -9, -38, 10, -41, 37, -5, 2, 62, 3, 
-5, -42, 17, -50, 14, -58, -16, 26, -20, -49, 52, 73, -42, 9, 7, -50, 14, -11, 
39, 0, -45, -90, -30, -16, -19, -6, -1, 43, -7, -47, -4, 40, -6, 5, 2, 2, -20, 
-40, 39, 10, -16, 64, -11, -36, -5, 37, -16, 49, 24, -20, 17, 27, -21, -49, -49, 
-38, -19, -31, -2, 15, 52, -68, -14, 20, 38, 10, -48, -2, -52, -60, -55, -30, 
37, -32, -80, 1, -1, -12, -45, 15, 29, 8, -46, -42, -28, -38, 11, 4, 19, 2, 67, 
-44, -5, -28, 21, 17, -16, -34, 16, -6, 10, -11, 15, 2, 33, -25, -13, 8, -7, 2, 
-22, 21, -41, 10, -29, -36, 46, 19, -41, 36, -39, 10, -23, -13, -2, -53, 39, 
-25, -4]
 
 
UBINARY Embedding from the same model (1024 dimensions = 128 packed UINT8 bytes)
[201, 200, 65, 129, 217, 166, 185, 167, 90, 138, 0, 172, 242, 207, 165, 52, 245, 
187, 96, 215, 39, 159, 250, 126, 107, 162, 201, 123, 193, 203, 202, 123, 87, 67, 
113, 235, 253, 220, 187, 236, 220, 125, 185, 136, 102, 8, 224, 222, 220, 12, 214, 
217, 92, 16, 61, 195, 69, 220, 121, 236, 94, 136, 100, 46, 212, 250, 189, 45, 26, 
101, 20, 88, 253, 18, 51, 110, 49, 192, 37, 52, 232, 98, 204, 212, 146, 55, 249, 
32, 108, 174, 44, 237, 67, 246, 166, 29, 188, 103, 173, 230, 4, 104, 37, 79, 71, 
202, 162, 16, 160, 147, 56, 174, 82, 109, 96, 34, 230, 139, 96, 51, 129, 35, 135, 
198, 87, 42, 154, 132]

The BINARY vector is generated through a binary quantization mechanism using the following rule:

• If the INT8 dimension value > 0, the BINARY dimension value is 1
• If the INT8 dimension value <= 0, the BINARY dimension format is 0

Consider the first 8 INT8 dimensions from the preceding example:

[25, 11, -99, -114, 13, -17, -59, 44]

In BINARY, this translates to:

[1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1]

Representing this as a UINT8 byte makes it 201, which is the first byte value of the packed UINT8 representation. So, each BINARY vector can therefore be inserted as a UINT8 array whose size is: number of BINARY vector dimensions/8.

The following is an example of an invalid declaration of a BINARY vector column, due to the fact that the vector dimension, 12, is not divisible by 8:

CREATE TABLE vectab (id NUMBER, data VECTOR(12, BINARY));

Result:

CREATE TABLE vectab (id NUMBER, data VECTOR(12, BINARY))
                                                *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-51813: Vector of BINARY format should have a dimension count that is a multiple of 8.

The following statements are an example of a valid table creation with a BINARY vector column and a valid insert (string representation):

CREATE TABLE vectab(id NUMBER, data VECTOR(16, BINARY));
INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[201, 15]');
SELECT data FROM vectab;

Result:

DATA
---------
[201,15]

These next statements are examples of invalid inserts (string representation):

SQL> INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[201]');
INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[201]')
                              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-51803: Vector dimension count must match the dimension count specified in
the column definition (actual: 8, required: 16).

SQL> INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[201, 15, 123]');
INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[201, 15, 123]')
                              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-51803: Vector dimension count must match the dimension count specified in
the column definition (actual: 24, required: 16).

SQL> INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[256, 15]');
INSERT INTO vectab VALUES (1, '[256, 15]')
                              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-51806: Vector column is not properly formatted (dimension value 1 is
outside the allowed precision range).