BLOB

An item of type BLOB represents a binary large object with a length ranging from one byte to two gigabytes.

The following statements are true of an item of type BLOB:
  • It can be declared only as an individual item, and is not supported in BasicRecords.
  • It can be passed to local function and program calls. Large object parameters and corresponding arguments must both be declared as large objects of the same type.
  • It can be assigned only to another Blob variable.
  • It can be moved to another Blob variable, which has the same result as being assigned to a Blob variable.
  • You can create a reference variable of BLOB.
  • It uses SQLlocator (BLOB); that is, BLOB contains a logical pointer to the SQL BLOB data rather than to the data itself.
  • When used with SQLRecord,
    • BLOB represents Binary Large Object as a column in the database.
    • BLOB is valid for the duration of the transaction in which it was created.
  • It cannot be passed to calls to remote programs or to non-EGL programs.
  • It cannot be referenced as an operand on assignment statements or in expressions.
You may use the following functions with BLOB:
  • attachBlobToFile
  • freeBlob
  • getBlobLen
  • loadBlobFromFile
  • truncateBlob
  • updateBlobToFile
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