CLOB

CLOB

CLOB: a data type used to store large amounts of character data, up to 4GB.

It is very similar to the BLOB, hence why the names may be so close, but in this case it actually stands for Character Large Object, instead of Binary Large Object.

Where the BLOB stored a large amount of unformatted binary data, however, the CLOB contains specific character encoding, which clearly sets the formatting and representation of characters.

Just like BLOB, though, it is used to store data that would otherwise be too large or complicated for traditional file types, and serves as the backup, which also means it has its own issues being accepted universally and run universally.

There are three basic forms of storing character data: char, varchar and text. If these don’t work for what you are doing, or if the database requires a different format, there is always the other three text file types: tinytext, mediumtext and longtext.

CLOB is generally only used when the information contained in the file is too large to be saved with the traditional methods, and some databases don’t even allow CLOB files to be saved to the databases, and instead use the file as a reference point for its location.

Because it can be difficult to support, and many programs are not able to run operations in CLOB fields, it should only really be used as a last resort, for saving abnormally large files like full publications and articles or books.

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