Femme Fatale
Femme Fatale

Reputation: 880

Oracle BLOB column reading

I have a result of a query which has BLOB column defined in it. The BLOB contains images and i am interested in showing this result to others without using any sort of application. e.g. the query return three columns:-


NAME => Steven
PHONE => 786
PICTURE => BLOB
Is there any way to retrieve/show this BLOB as a result in any export format, may it be Microsoft access, excel sheet, html or PDF. Theme is to fetch this result and show this BLOB along with other columns for which I have option of using PL/SQL and SQL only. Here i would like to add that i am using HORA (keep tool) to export my query result.
All i want is to extract this query containing images in it. Is it possible?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1051

Answers (1)

APC
APC

Reputation: 146349

The first "B" in BLOB stands for binary. As far as Oracle is concerned it's just an undifferentiated chunk of RAW data. We can put anything in a BLOB column - DOCX, TIFF, EXE: the database doesn't care.

In order render a blob as a picture we need an application which can interpret the binary protocol (BMP. JPEG, PNG, etc).


" I am sure there must be a way around. "

Not using pure PL/SQL or SQL. Pictures require a client application. You say you're using Hora. It's not an application with which I'm familiar but I checked out their web site and found this pertinent snippet:

"Improvements in Data Contents (new Record View, new Text View, enhancements to the column headings in Grid View, display of BLOB fields using Windows applications )" [emphasis mine]

If you need something more permanent or transportable, perhaps Hora's Reporting Facility can render images?

Upvotes: 6

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