Convert UTF-8 varbinary(max) to varchar(max)

I don't like this solution, but it's one I got to (I initially thought it wasn't working, due to what appears to be a bug in ADS). One method would be to create a new database in a UTF8 collation, and then pass the value to a function in that database. As the database is in a UTF8 collation, the default collation will be different to the local one, and the correct result will be returned:

CREATE DATABASE UTF8 COLLATE Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_SC_UTF8;
GO
USE UTF8;
GO
CREATE OR ALTER FUNCTION dbo.Bin2UTF8 (@utfbinary varbinary(MAX))
RETURNS varchar(MAX) AS
BEGIN
    RETURN CAST(@utfbinary AS varchar(MAX));
END
GO
USE YourDatabase;
GO
SELECT UTF8.dbo.Bin2UTF8(0x48656C6C6F20F09F988A);

This, however, isn't particularly "pretty".

There is an undocumented hack:

DECLARE @utf8 VARBINARY(MAX)=0x48656C6C6F20F09F988A;

SELECT CAST(CONCAT('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><![CDATA[',@utf8,']]>') AS XML)
       .value('.','nvarchar(max)');

The result

Hello 

This works even in versions without the new UTF8 collations...

UPDATE: calling this as a function

This can easily be wrapped in a scalar function

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Convert_UTF8_Binary_To_NVarchar(@utfBinary VARBINARY(MAX))
RETURNS NVARCHAR(MAX)
AS
BEGIN
    RETURN
    (
    SELECT CAST(CONCAT('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><![CDATA[',@utfBinary,']]>') AS XML)
           .value('.','nvarchar(max)')
    );
END
GO

Or like this as an inlined table valued function

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.Convert_UTF8_Binary_To_NVarchar(@utfBinary VARBINARY(MAX))
RETURNS TABLE
AS
    RETURN
    SELECT CAST(CONCAT('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><![CDATA[',@utfBinary,']]>') AS XML)
           .value('.','nvarchar(max)') AS ConvertedString
GO

This can be used after FROM or - more appropriate - with APPLY

DECLARE @utf8Binary varbinary(max) = 0x48656C6C6F20F09F988A;
DECLARE @brokenNVarChar nvarchar(max) = concat(@utf8Binary, '' COLLATE Latin1_General_100_CI_AS_SC_UTF8);
print '@brokenNVarChar = ' +  @brokenNVarChar;