v.20.3Improvement

MySQL Client Prints Binary Strings in Hex; ClickHouse Workaround Proposed

After recent changes MySQL client started to print binary strings in hex thereby making them not readable (#9032). The workaround in ClickHouse is to mark string columns as UTF-8, which is not always, but usually the case. #9079 (Yuriy Baranov)
Fixes the issue where the MySQL client prints binary strings in hexadecimal, making them unreadable in ClickHouse queries.

Why it matters

The feature addresses a problem introduced by recent changes in the MySQL client that cause binary strings to be displayed as hex values instead of readable text. This makes query results hard to interpret. The fix improves usability by ensuring string columns are handled and displayed correctly as UTF-8 encoded text when applicable.

How to use it

This fix is automatically applied in ClickHouse, which marks string columns as UTF-8 encoded by default to prevent binary string representations in the MySQL client interface. No additional user configuration is needed.