The
BLOB function returns a BLOB representation of a string of any type.
>>-BLOB--(--string-expression--+------------+--)---------------><
'-,--integer-'
- string-expression
- An
expression that returns a value of a character string, graphic string,
or binary string data type.
- integer
- An integer value specifying the length attribute of the resulting
BLOB data type. If integer is not specified, the length attribute
of the result is the same as the length of the input, except where
the input is graphic. In this case, the length attribute of the result
is twice the length of the input.
The result of the function is a BLOB. If the argument
can be null, the result can be null; if the argument is null, the
result is the null value.
Example
Given
a table with a BLOB column named TOPOGRAPHIC_MAP and a VARCHAR column
named MAP_NAME, locate any maps that contain the string 'Pellow Island'
and return a single binary string with the map name concatenated in
front of the actual map.
SELECT BLOB(MAP_NAME CONCAT ': ') CONCAT TOPOGRAPHIC_MAP
FROM ONTARIO_SERIES_4
WHERE TOPOGRAPHIC_MAP LIKE BLOB('%Pellow Island%')