Re: BLOBs

From: Daniel A. Morgan <dmorgan_at_exesolutions.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 23:08:02 -0700
Message-ID: <3B303DC1.976F84EE@exesolutions.com>

root wrote:

> Hi. I have a quick question.
>
> I have enherited a table that has a column that contains BLOBs.
>
> Is there any way of finding out what kind of data this contains?
>
> Obviously, SQLplus can't display it, and even if I get the data out
> using a perl program or the like, I have no way of knowing what format
> the data is in.
>
> I'm new to this stuff, and have no access to the programs that would
> have created the BLOBs in the first place.
>
> Thanks for any pointers.
>
> justin

If it is some easily recognizable format such as a GIF file you will find the file designator in the first few characters which you can get out using the DBMS_LOB functions. But if you don't know what is in the table then you probably have no use of it and have far far better things to do with your time. Try one of the following:

TRUNCATE TABLE ...
DROP TABLE ... Daniel A. Morgan Received on Wed Jun 20 2001 - 01:08:02 CDT