Bug #48457 .ToString returns System.Byte[]

• Submitted: 1 Nov 2009 22:55
• Modified: 2 Nov 2009 21:54
• Reporter: Jared S (Silver Quality Contributor)
• Status: Not a Bug
• Category: Connector / ODBC
• Severity: S3 (Non-critical)
• Version: 5.1.5
• OS: Windows (Any)
• CPU Architecture: Any
• Tags: connector, NET, ODBC, qc, system.byte, ToString

[1 Nov 2009 22:55] Jared S

Description:
.ToString returns System.Byte[]

How to repeat:
using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication1
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {

        public System.Data.Odbc.OdbcDataReader DTR0;
        public System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection CON0;
        public System.Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand CMD0;

        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
        CMD0 = new System.Data.Odbc.OdbcCommand("SELECT MD5('123acb')", CON0);
        DTR0 = CMD0.ExecuteReader();
        Console.WriteLine(DTR0[0].ToString());
        //BUG Outputs --> "System.Byte[]"
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
        CON0 = new System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection();
        CON0.ConnectionString = "DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver}; SERVER=localhost; UID=root; DATABASE=mysql; PORT=3306;";
        CON0.Open();
        }
    }
}

Suggested fix:
'my VB workaround, could be used as a fix

Public Function OBJECT2STRING(ByVal xObject As Object) As String
Dim zBytes() As Byte
Dim zString As String
        If TypeOf xObject Is System.Byte() Then
        zBytes = DirectCast(xObject, System.Byte())
        zString = System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(zBytes)
        Else
        zString = xObject.ToString
        End If
    Return zString
End Function

[2 Nov 2009 11:41] Tonci Grgin

Hi Jared and thanks for your report.

I see no question nor anything remotely resembling a bug here. Please read server documentation regarding MD5 and c/ODBC documentation regarding connect option "Always handle binary function result as character data".

After reading this carefully, if you still feel there's a bug here, please reopen the report and point it out to me. I'll be monitoring.

[2 Nov 2009 21:54] Jared S

NET Flag Examples

option   : Respect Binary Flags=false
constring: "SERVER=localhost;UID=root;password=;DATABASE=mysql;PORT=3306;Respect Binary Flags=false"
documents: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/connector-net-programming-connection-options.html

ODBC Falg Example

option   : OPTION=268435456
constring: "DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver}; SERVER=localhost; UID=root; DATABASE=mysql; PORT=3306;OPTION=268435456"
documents: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/connector-odbc-configuration-connection-parameters....

SQL Example

SELECT CONVERT(MD5('abc123')USING latin1)