how to use Blob datatype in Postgres

Question

I am using a Postgresql database in my rails application. To store large file or data in database I have used blob data type in MySql.

For Postgres which data type I

Answer 1

I think this is the most comprehensive answer on the PostgreSQL wiki itself: https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/BinaryFilesInDB

Read the part with the title 'What is the best way to store the files in the Database?'

Answer 2

use bytea (or Large Objects if you absolutely have to)

Answer 3

Storing files in your database will lead to a huge database size. You may not like that, for development, testing, backups, etc.

Instead, you'd use FileStream (SQL-Server) or BFILE (Oracle).

There is no default-implementation of BFILE/FileStream in Postgres, but you can add it: https://github.com/darold/external_file

And further information (in french) can be obtained here:
http://blog.dalibo.com/2015/01/26/Extension_BFILE_pour_PostgreSQL.html

---

To answer the acual question:
Apart from bytea, for really large files, you can use LOBS:

// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14509747/inserting-large-object-into-postgresql-returns-53200-out-of-memory-error
// https://github.com/npgsql/Npgsql/wiki/User-Manual
public int InsertLargeObject()
{
    int noid;
    byte[] BinaryData = new byte[123];

    // Npgsql.NpgsqlCommand cmd ;
    // long lng = cmd.LastInsertedOID;

    using (Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection connection = new Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection(GetConnectionString()))
    {
        using (Npgsql.NpgsqlTransaction transaction = connection.BeginTransaction())
        {
            try
            {
                NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager manager = new NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager(connection);
                noid = manager.Create(NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager.READWRITE);
                NpgsqlTypes.LargeObject lo = manager.Open(noid, NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager.READWRITE);

                // lo.Write(BinaryData);
                int i = 0;
                do
                {
                    int length = 1000;
                    if (i + length > BinaryData.Length)
                        length = BinaryData.Length - i;

                    byte[] chunk = new byte[length];
                    System.Array.Copy(BinaryData, i, chunk, 0, length);
                    lo.Write(chunk, 0, length);
                    i += length;
                } while (i < BinaryData.Length);

                lo.Close();
                transaction.Commit();
            } // End Try
            catch
            {
                transaction.Rollback();
                throw;
            } // End Catch

            return noid;
        } // End Using transaction 

    } // End using connection

} // End Function InsertLargeObject 



public System.Drawing.Image GetLargeDrawing(int idOfOID)
{
    System.Drawing.Image img;

    using (Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection connection = new Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection(GetConnectionString()))
    {
        lock (connection)
        {
            if (connection.State != System.Data.ConnectionState.Open)
                connection.Open();

            using (Npgsql.NpgsqlTransaction trans = connection.BeginTransaction())
            {
                NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager lbm = new NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager(connection);
                NpgsqlTypes.LargeObject lo = lbm.Open(takeOID(idOfOID), NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager.READWRITE); //take picture oid from metod takeOID
                byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];

                using (System.IO.MemoryStream ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
                {
                    int read;
                    while ((read = lo.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
                    {
                        ms.Write(buffer, 0, read);
                    } // Whend

                    img = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(ms);
                } // End Using ms

                lo.Close();
                trans.Commit();

                if (connection.State != System.Data.ConnectionState.Closed)
                    connection.Close();
            } // End Using trans

        } // End lock connection

    } // End Using connection

    return img;
} // End Function GetLargeDrawing



public void DeleteLargeObject(int noid)
{
    using (Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection connection = new Npgsql.NpgsqlConnection(GetConnectionString()))
    {
        if (connection.State != System.Data.ConnectionState.Open)
            connection.Open();

        using (Npgsql.NpgsqlTransaction trans = connection.BeginTransaction())
        {
            NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager lbm = new NpgsqlTypes.LargeObjectManager(connection);
            lbm.Delete(noid);

            trans.Commit();

            if (connection.State != System.Data.ConnectionState.Closed)
                connection.Close();
        } // End Using trans 

    } // End Using connection

} // End Sub DeleteLargeObject