Access mysql blob data from stored procedure

[Kalpesh g]

Hi

I have one friend table which stores all the users id who are friend of user in blob column.

I want to ask if these is right method or not.

I was trying to write stored procedure which converts blob data type to char by cast. But i can not access string to split by separator as it is in char.

Code for stored procedure is below:

CREATE PROCEDURE `string_procedure`()
BEGIN
DECLARE name_val VARCHAR(255);
DECLARE status_update_val VARCHAR(255);

-- Declare variables used just for cursor and loop control
DECLARE no_more_rows BOOLEAN;
DECLARE loop_cntr INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE num_rows INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE friends_cur cursor for SELECT CAST(friend_id AS CHAR(10000) CHARACTER SET utf8) as name_val FROM `friend` WHERE `friend_id` = '2';


DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR NOT FOUND SET no_more_rows = TRUE;
OPEN friends_cur;
the_loop: LOOP

FETCH friends_cur INTO name_val;

IF no_more_rows THEN
CLOSE friends_cur;
LEAVE the_loop;
END IF;

select name_val;


END LOOP the_loop;
END