There are two data types for defining columns that store documents, images, audio, and other variable-length binary data:
- BLOB type (columns specified as the BLOB type are called LOB columns)
- BINARY type
A comparison of how these types store data follows.
- Data length (base row + binary data length) does not exceed 1 page
![[Figure]](figure/zu120151.gif)
- Data length (base row + binary data length) does exceed 1 page
![[Figure]](figure/zu120152.gif)
- Explanation:
- A column for which the BLOB type is specified differs from a column with other attributes in that it is stored in a user LOB RDAREA whose page length is fixed at 8 kilobytes.
- In the case of a column for which the BINARY type is specified, if all of the column data that composes the table can be stored on one page, then each row is stored on one page regardless of the actual data length. However, if one row cannot be stored on one page, it is stored on multiple pages in a dedicated BINARY segment.
- Organization of this section
- 13.12.1 BLOB type
- 13.12.2 BINARY type
- 13.12.3 BLOB type and BINARY type usage