Reproduced with: go version go1.18.2 darwin/arm64, modernc.org/sqlite@v1.16.0 and higher Handling of nil byte slices (`var x []byte`) changed when inserting such values in v1.16.0. Before v1.16.0 nil byte slices were inserted like NULL values, starting with v1.16.0 they are inserted as zero-sized blobs. Consider the following test: ```go func TestNullColumn(t *testing.T) { db, err := sql.Open("sqlite", ":memory:") if err != nil { t.Fatal(err) } defer db.Close() if _, err := db.Exec(`CREATE TABLE t1(Tags TEXT)`); err != nil { t.Fatal(err) } var val []byte // nil value _, err = db.Exec(`INSERT INTO t1(Tags) VALUES(@tags)`, sql.Named("tags", val)) if err != nil { t.Fatal(err) } var res sql.NullByte if err = db.QueryRow(`SELECT Tags FROM t1 LIMIT 1`).Scan(&res); err != nil { t.Fatal(err) } if res.Valid { t.Fatalf("got non-NULL result: %v", res) } } ``` It passes on v1.15.4, but fails on v1.16.0 and higher: ``` ¶ go get modernc.org/sqlite@v1.15.4 go: downgraded modernc.org/sqlite v1.16.0 => v1.15.4 ¶ go test -run ^TestNullColumn$ PASS ok package-name 0.403s ¶ go get modernc.org/sqlite@v1.16.0 go: upgraded modernc.org/sqlite v1.15.4 => v1.16.0 ¶ go test -run ^TestNullColumn$ --- FAIL: TestNullColumn (0.00s) err_test.go:29: sql: Scan error on column index 0, name "Tags": converting driver.Value type []uint8 ("") to a uint8: invalid syntax FAIL exit status 1 FAIL package-name 0.159s ``` If I change the test to use the on-disk database file and later inspect it with sqlite3 cli (3.38.5): Database created on v1.15.4 has nil `[]byte` stored as NULL (as expected): ``` sqlite> select ifnull(Tags,'XXX') from t1; ifnull(Tags,'XXX') ------------------ XXX ``` v1.16.0 and higher store nil `[]byte` as a zero-sized blob instead: ``` sqlite> select ifnull(Tags,'XXX') from t1; ifnull(Tags,'XXX') ------------------ sqlite> select typeof(Tags) from t1; typeof(Tags) ------------ blob sqlite> select length(Tags) from t1; length(Tags) ------------ 0 ```