How to convert from varbinary to char/varchar in mysql

Question

Hi 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 use a MySQL version 5.10

Answer 1

You can use cast operation:

select cast(column_name as varchar)
  from table_name

Answer 2

cast(fieldname as varchar)

Answer 3

ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY column_name VARCHAR(128);

Answer 4

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

select cast(binaryColumn as CHAR) from table_name