Want to know about this term

[Angela]

I recently came across a term called BLOB. What is this? Is it any data type or any function?

[siva sankar]

Hi,

There are 4 types of LOBs:

CLOB - Character LOB (single byte characters only,
8.0: the database charset must be fixed width,
**NEW 8i**: the database charset may be fixed or
variable width; variable width data is
stored in the database as UCS2 (Unicode,
double byte) regardless of database charset),
<= 4Gig.
BLOB - Binary LOB, <= 4Gig.
NCLOB - National Character LOB (8.0: fixed width multibyte
national charset characters only,
**NEW 8i**: fixed or variable width multibyte
national charset characters; variable width
data is stored in the database as UCS2
regardless of database charset),
<= 4Gig.
Note, unlike the other types of LOBs, NCLOBs may
not be part of an Object type though they may be
arguments to an Object method.
BFILE - Binary file, stored in the O/S, not the database.
The database holds the directory alias and
filename.
Thanks,
Siva Sankar