public static byte[] scalarValueToBinary(TableDefinition tableDef, String fieldName, String fieldValue) {
        if (fieldValue == null || fieldValue.length() == 0) {
            return null;    // means "don't store".
        }
        FieldDefinition fieldDef = tableDef.getFieldDef(fieldName);
        if (fieldDef != null && fieldDef.isBinaryField()) {
            return fieldDef.getEncoding().decode(fieldValue);
        } else {
            return Utils.toBytes(fieldValue);
        }
    }
public static byte [ ] scalarValueToBinary ( TableDefinition tableDef , String fieldName , String fieldValue ) { if ( fieldValue == null || fieldValue . length ( ) == 0 ) { return null ; } FieldDefinition fieldDef = tableDef . getFieldDef ( fieldName ) ; if ( fieldDef != null && fieldDef . isBinaryField ( ) ) { return fieldDef . getEncoding ( ) . decode ( fieldValue ) ; } else { return Utils . toBytes ( fieldValue ) ; } }
Convert the given scalar value to binary form. This method returns the appropriate
format for storage based on the scalar's type. This method is the twin of
{@link #scalarValueToString(TableDefinition, String, byte[])}

@param tableDef      {@link TableDefinition} of table in which field resides.
@param fieldName     Scalar field name.
@param fieldValue    Field value in string form (may be null).
@return              Binary storage format.