From 48c2102ee297cd40fa6f5392546010550bd85bda Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Noah Treuhaft <noah.treuhaft@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2025 12:44:48 -0400
Subject: [PATCH] runtime/vam: fix cast from string to string

---
 runtime/vam/expr/cast/bytes.go      | 10 +++++++---
 runtime/ztests/expr/cast/bytes.yaml |  6 ++++++
 2 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/runtime/vam/expr/cast/bytes.go b/runtime/vam/expr/cast/bytes.go
index 3cea7f351..5c6e39a40 100644
--- a/runtime/vam/expr/cast/bytes.go
+++ b/runtime/vam/expr/cast/bytes.go
@@ -5,11 +5,15 @@ import (
 )
 
 func castToBytes(vec vector.Any, index []uint32) (vector.Any, []uint32, string, bool) {
-	strVec, ok := vec.(*vector.String)
-	if !ok {
+	var out vector.Any
+	switch vec := vec.(type) {
+	case *vector.Bytes:
+		out = vec
+	case *vector.String:
+		out = vector.NewBytes(vec.Table(), vector.NullsOf(vec))
+	default:
 		return nil, nil, "", false
 	}
-	out := vector.Any(vector.NewBytes(strVec.Table(), vector.NullsOf(strVec)))
 	if index != nil {
 		out = vector.Pick(out, index)
 	}
diff --git a/runtime/ztests/expr/cast/bytes.yaml b/runtime/ztests/expr/cast/bytes.yaml
index 4d4c6e31b..7ea577413 100644
--- a/runtime/ztests/expr/cast/bytes.yaml
+++ b/runtime/ztests/expr/cast/bytes.yaml
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ spq: this::bytes
 vector: true
 
 input: |
+  0x01
+  null::bytes
+  null
   "foo"
   "bar"::=named
   ""
@@ -10,6 +13,9 @@ input: |
   {x:"foo"}
 
 output: |
+  0x01
+  null::bytes
+  null::bytes
   0x666f6f
   0x626172
   0x