How to convert from varbinary to char/varchar in mysql

Question

I have a field which is varbinary. It has already been populated. Now how do i convert varbinary to varchar so that I can use the data in the field for some other purpose. I

Answer 1

You can use cast operation:

select cast(column_name as char)
  from table_name

Answer 2

Late answer...

You can use CAST or CONVERT thus

CAST(foo AS CHAR(100))
CONVERT(foo, CHAR(100))

Supported types (5.5) are:

BINARY[(N)]
CHAR[(N)]
DATE
DATETIME
DECIMAL[(M[,D])]
SIGNED [INTEGER]
TIME
UNSIGNED [INTEGER]

You can not cast to varchar directly.
There is an open MySQL bug from 2008 which no-one seems to care about and is damn annoying

Answer 3

The MySQL syntax that worked for me in a similar scenario to this is:

select cast(binaryColumn as CHAR) from table_name