BFILENAME

Syntax

Purpose

BFILENAME returns a BFILE locator that is associated with a physical LOB binary file on the server's file system. A directory is an alias for a full pathname on the server's file system where the files are actually located, and 'filename' is the name of the file in the server's file system.

Neither 'directory' nor 'filename' needs to point to an existing object on the file system at the time you specify BFILENAME. However, you must associate a BFILE value with a physical file before performing subsequent SQL, PL/SQL, DBMS_LOB package, or OCI operations.

See Also: Oracle8i Application Developer's Guide - Large Objects (LOBs) and Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide for more information on LOBs. "CREATE DIRECTORY".

Example

INSERT INTO file_tbl
   VALUES (BFILENAME ('lob_dir1', 'image1.gif'));