MySQL: Explain CONVERT() in MySQL.

 

In MySQL, the CONVERT() function is used to convert a value from one character set to another. It can be used to change the character set of a string expression or column to a specified target character set. This function is often used when dealing with multilingual applications or when there is a need to ensure that the character set of a particular string is compatible with the desired encoding.

The basic syntax of the CONVERT() function is as follows:

sql
CONVERT(expr USING character_set);

Here, expr is the expression or column that you want to convert, and character_set is the target character set to which you want to convert the expression.

For example, let's say you have a column named text in the utf8mb4 character set, and you want to convert it to the latin1 character set:

sql
SELECT CONVERT(text USING latin1) AS converted_text
FROM your_table;

In this example, the CONVERT(text USING latin1) expression converts the text column from the utf8mb4 character set to the latin1 character set. The result will be a new column named converted_text containing the converted values.

It's important to note that using CONVERT() may result in data loss if the target character set cannot represent all the characters present in the source character set. Additionally, the success of the conversion depends on the compatibility of the source and target character sets.

While CONVERT() is useful for character set conversion, it's worth mentioning that MySQL also supports the CAST() function for general data type conversion, as mentioned in a previous response.