---
description: "PWDENCRYPT (Transact-SQL)"
title: "PWDENCRYPT (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs"
ms.custom: ""
ms.date: "03/14/2017"
ms.prod: sql
ms.prod_service: "sql-database"
ms.reviewer: ""
ms.technology: t-sql
ms.topic: reference
f1_keywords: 
  - "PWDENCRYPT"
  - "PWDENCRYPT_TSQL"
dev_langs: 
  - "TSQL"
helpviewer_keywords: 
  - "PWDENCRYPT function [Transact-SQL]"
ms.assetid: 333e9a43-1099-4b9b-b941-4b0b016f47f3
author: VanMSFT
ms.author: vanto
---
# PWDENCRYPT (Transact-SQL)
[!INCLUDE [SQL Server](../../includes/applies-to-version/sqlserver.md)]

  Returns the [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)] password hash of the input value that uses the current version of the password hashing algorithm.  
  
 PWDENCRYPT is an older function and might not be supported in a future release of [!INCLUDE[ssNoVersion](../../includes/ssnoversion-md.md)]. Use [HASHBYTES](../../t-sql/functions/hashbytes-transact-sql.md) instead. HASHBYTES provides more hashing algorithms.  
  
 ![Topic link icon](../../database-engine/configure-windows/media/topic-link.gif "Topic link icon") [Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions](../../t-sql/language-elements/transact-sql-syntax-conventions-transact-sql.md)  
  
## Syntax  
  
```syntaxsql
PWDENCRYPT ( 'password' )  
```  
  
[!INCLUDE[sql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation](../../includes/sql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation.md)]

## Arguments
 *password*  
 Is the password to be encrypted. *password* is **sysname**.  
  
## Return Types  
 **varbinary(128)**  
  
## Permissions  
 PWDENCRYPT is available to public.  
  
## See Also  
 [Security Functions (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/security-functions-transact-sql.md)   
 [PWDCOMPARE (Transact-SQL)](../../t-sql/functions/pwdcompare-transact-sql.md)