Summary

In this chapter, you learned that

• LOBs may be used to store binary data, character data, and references to external files. LOBs can store up to 128 terabytes of data.

• There are four LOB types: CLOB , NCLOB , BLOB , and BFILE .

• A CLOB is used to store character data.

• An NCLOB is used to store multiple byte character data.

• A BLOB is used to store binary data.

• A BFILE is used to store pointers to files located in the file system.

• A LOB consists of two parts : a locator that specifies the location of the LOB content, and the content.

• A table may contain LOB columns and you can add content to those columns .

• The DBMS_LOB PL/SQL package contains methods to manipulate LOBs.

In the next chapter you ll learn how to run SQL statements from a Java program.