How can I directly view blobs in MySQL Workbench
In short:
- Go to Edit > Preferences
- Choose SQL Editor
- Under SQL Execution, check Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string
- Restart MySQL Workbench (you will not be prompted or informed of this requirement).
In MySQL Workbench 6.0+
- Go to Edit > Preferences
- Choose SQL Queries
- Under Query Results, check Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string
- It's not mandatory to restart MySQL Workbench (you will not be prompted or informed of this requirement).*
With this setting you will be able to concatenate fields without getting blobs.
I think this applies to versions 5.2.22 and later and is the result of this MySQL bug.
Disclaimer: I don't know what the downside of this setting is - maybe when you are selecting BINARY/VARBINARY values you will see it as plain text which may be misleading and/or maybe it will hinder performance if they are large enough?
Perform three steps:
Go to "WorkBench Preferences" --> Choose "SQL Editor" Under "Query Results": check "Treat BINARY/VARBINARY as nonbinary character string"
Restart MySQL WorkBench.
Now select
SELECT SUBSTRING(<BLOB_COLUMN_NAME>,1,2500) FROM <Table_name>;
I'm not sure if this answers the question but if if you right click on the "blob" icon in the field (when viewing the table) there is an option to "Open Value in Editor". One of the tabs lets you view the blob. This is in ver. 5.2.34