Convert blobs in an Access database into text I had an issue with a database with text encoded as
blobs (all I could see was "long binary data" in each cell) so I had to find a solution. Just a note here: if your blobs are in effect images or other type of non-textual binary data then the proposed solution will simply give you a string of meaningless characters.
One easy way is to open the
.mdb database with a good text editor (like
Notepad++, I personally use
EmEditor but it is commercial). Make sure you guess the encoding right (UTF-8 would be a good one to try). What you might get is text separated with little square symbols. If this is good enough you can copy the text. If this is not good enough, then you need to follow a different procedure.
Step 1. Convert
.mdb database to
MySQL database. Use the free tool
Access To MySQLStep 2. Use a tool like
PhpMyAdmin (available in most server configurations or in local server installs like
Wamp).
Construct your querySELECT CAST(
column_name AS CHAR CHARACTER SET utf8) FROM
table_nameReplace
column_name and
table_name with the respective column and table of the blobs.
Run your query. Use
export as csv to export the results.
Similarly, you can use this type of query to export directly from MySQL. For example, if you want to get the text from mediawiki articles, try something like this:
Export mediawiki articles from blob to textSELECT CAST(old_text AS CHAR CHARACTER SET utf8) FROM text
Magic provided by courtesy of the MySQL command
CAST().