What is it exactly a BLOB in a DBMS context

Question

• What is it a BLOB?
• How can I use it?
• What are the differences between DBMS\'s BLOBs. I would like to save data using BLOBs into any DBMS and then rea

Answer 1

I won't expand the acronym yet again... but I will add some nuance to the other definition: you can store any data in a blob regardless of other byte interpretations they may have. Text can be stored in a blob, but you would be better off with a CLOB if you have that option.

There should be no differences between BLOBS across databases in the sense that after you have saved and retrieved the data it is unchanged.... how each database achieves that is a blackbox and thankfully almost without exception irrelevant. The manner of interacting with BLOBS, however can be very different since there are no specifications in SQL standards (or standards in the specifications?) for it. Usually you will have to invoke procedures/functions to save retrieve them, and limiting any query based on the contents of a BLOB is nearly impossible if not prohibited.

Among the other stuff enumerated as binary data, you can also store binary representations of text -> character codes with a given encoding... without actually knowing or specifying the encoding used.

BLOBS are the lowest common denominators of storage formats.