Oracle Database 11g PL/SQL Programming

CHAPTER 8Large Objects

Large objects (LOBs) are powerful data structures that let you store text, images, music, and video in the database. Oracle 11g dramatically changes the LOB landscape by reengineering how large objects work. They're now faster and more secure (SecureFiles). You can now define BLOB, CLOB, or NCLOB columns as SecureFiles when you create a table or alter it.

LOBs can hold up to a maximum of 8 to 128 terabytes, depending on how you configure your database. A call to the GET_STORAGE_LIMIT function in the DBMS_LOB package tells you your database maximum LOB size. You can store character large objects in CLOB columns, and binary large objects inside the database as BLOB columns or outside the database as BFILE (binary file) columns. ...