>>I promiss I'll try it. Do you have a sample ?
>>
>>-gl
>
>select cast(charfild as int) as ConvertCharToint from myTable
>
>assuming that CharField only has valid entries that can be converted.

In MySQL you cannot cast to int, it will cause an error. You need to use Decimal instead:

Select CAST(charfield AS Decimal(10,0)) AS ConvertChar from MyTable.

It's a limitation in MySQL that has casted me many headaches before.