title: Storing a SHA512 Password Hash in Database
body: <p>In my ASP.NET web app I'm hashing my user passwords with SHA512.</p>
  
  <p>Despite much SO'ing and Googling I'm unclear how I should be storing them in the database (SQL2005) - the code below shows the basics of how I'm creating the hash as a string and I'm currently inserting it into the database into a Char(88) column as that seems to be the length created consistently</p>
  
  <p>Is holding it as a String the best way to do it, if so will it always be 88 chars on a SHA512 (as I have seen some bizarre stuff on Google)? </p>
  
  <pre><code> Dim byteInput As Byte() = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sSalt &amp; sInput)
   Dim hash As HashAlgorithm = New SHA512Managed()
   Dim sInsertToDatabase As String =  Convert.ToBase64String(hash.ComputeHash(byteInput))
  </code></pre>