Oracle9i Application Developer's Guide - Large Objects (LOBs) Release 1 (9.0.1) Part Number A88879-01 |
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Basic LOB Components, 2 of 5
Oracle9i regards LOBs as being of two kinds depending on their location with regard to the database -- internal LOBs and external LOBs, also referred to as BFILEs (binary files). Note that when we discuss some aspect of working with LOBs without specifying whether the LOB is internal or external, the characteristic under discussion pertains to both internal and external LOBs.
Internal LOBs, as their name suggests, are stored inside database tablespaces in a way that optimizes space and provides efficient access. Internal LOBs use copy semantics and participate in the transactional model of the server. You can recover internal LOB
s in the event of transaction or media failure, and any changes to a internal LOB
value can be committed or rolled back. In other words, all the ACIDFoot 1 properties that pertain to using database objects pertain to using internal LOBs.
There are three SQL datatypes for defining instances of internal LOBs:
Internal LOBs are divided into persistent and temporary LOBs.
External LOB
s (BFILES
) are large binary data objects stored in operating system files outside database tablespaces. These files use reference semantics. Apart from conventional secondary storage devices such as hard disks, BFILEs may also be located on tertiary block storage devices such as CD-ROMs, PhotoCDs and DVDs.
The BFILE
datatype allows read-only byte stream access to large files on the filesystem of the database server.
Oracle can access BFILE
s provided the underlying server operating system supports stream-mode access to these operating system (OS) files.
There is one datatype, BFILE, for declaring instances of external SQL LOB
s.
LOB
whose value is composed of binary ("raw") data, and is stored outside the database tablespaces in a server-side operating system file.
Internal LOBs, namely BLOBs, CLOBs, NCLOBs, whether persistent or temporary, use copy semantics.
When you insert or update a LOB with a LOB from another row in the same table, the LOB value is copied so that each row has a different copy of the LOB value.
Internal LOBs have copy semantics so that if the LOB in the row of the table is copied to another LOB, in a different row or perhaps in the same row but in a different column, then the actual LOB value is copied, not just the LOB locator. This means in this case that there will be two different LOB locators and two copies of the LOB value.
External LOBs (BFILEs) use reference semantics. When the BFILE in the row of the table is copied to another BFILE, only the BFILE locator is copied, not the actual BFILE data, i.e., not the actual operating system file.
1
ACID = Access Control Information Directory. This is the attribute that determines who has what type of access and to what directory data. It contains a set of rules for structural and content access items. For more information see the Oracle Internet Directory Administrators Guide.
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