title: MD5 Hash Values being prefixed with '0x'
body: <p>I have access to a database (SQL 2008 R2) which allows file uploads.  Within a table it has a column called ‘hash_key’ which I believe to be the md5 checksum.</p>
  
  <p>I’m trying to include some logic in something I’m writing which will also work out the md5 file.</p>
  
  <p>The trouble is the two systems are producing subtly different hash values for the same file.  The system would return this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>0x098F6BCD4621D373CADE4E832627B4F6
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And my function (and also some online ones) would return this for the same file</p>
  
  <pre><code>098F6BCD4621D373CADE4E832627B4F6
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>As you can see the only different is the first two (0x) characters.  Is this down to how the database is storing the value?  The database field is binary(16)</p>
  
  <p>Am I safe to just ignore the first two characters when doing the comparison?</p>