Question

I have a column in a sql server 2005 database that stores xml as varbinary,
the value lookes something like:

0x3C3F54657374696E672075706C6F616 // but much longer

Is there an online conversion tool for converting this to a readable string?

Answer 1

select CAST(0x3C3F54657374696E672075706C6F61643F3E3C666F6F3E3C2F666F6F3E as XML)

appears to work.

Online Conversion Link

And as it seems your datatype is image…

;with t(c) as
(
select CAST(0x3C3F54657374696E672075706C6F61643F3E3C666F6F3E3C2F666F6F3E as IMAGE)

)
select CAST(CAST(c as VARBINARY(MAX)) as XML)
from t