title: Retrieve coordinates from MySQL Geometry column
body: <p>I just started using the MySQL Geospatial extension in hope of speeding up lat/lng range searches in my database of 500K points. A new <code>GEOMETRY</code> column <code>p</code> is created.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Problem:</strong><code>p</code> &amp; <code>AsText(p)</code> values returned are simply <code>(BLOB)</code>, not in decimal degrees. No values are returned by <code>GeomFromText(p)</code>. Because I had the redundant <code>lat</code> and <code>lng</code> columns, I still manage to get the lat lng values that I need. But I'm thinking of removing the <code>lat</code> and <code>lng</code> cols and just rely on <code>p</code>.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Converted existing Lat/Lng values to Points</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>UPDATE listings SET p = GeomFromText('POINT(39.948177 -75.174324)') WHERE listing_id = '585221';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p><strong>Attempt to Retrieve Lat Lng from GEOMTRY col <code>p</code></strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT listing_id, lat, lng, GeomFromText(p), AsText(p), p from listings WHERE MBRContains( GeomFromText('Polygon((39 -76, 40 -76, 40 -74, 39 -74, 39 -76))'), p)
  </code></pre>