SQLite BLOB

In SQLite, the BLOB (Binary Large Object) data type is used to store binary data such as images, audio files, or any other non – text data.

Here’s a comprehensive guide on working with BLOB in SQLite:

1. Creating a Table with a BLOB Column

You can create a table with a BLOB column to store binary data. For example, to create a table named files for storing files and their binary content, you can use the following SQL statement:

CREATE TABLE files (
id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
file_name TEXT,
file_content BLOB
);


2. Inserting Binary Data into a BLOB Column

You can insert binary data into a BLOB column using programming languages that interact with SQLite. Here’s an example using Python and the sqlite3 library:

import sqlite3
import os

# Connect to the SQLite database
conn = sqlite3.connect('your_database.db')
cursor = conn.cursor()

# Read the binary file
file_path = 'example.jpg'
with open(file_path, 'rb') as file:
    binary_data = file.read()

# Insert the binary data into the table
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO files (file_name, file_content) VALUES (?,?)",
               (os.path.basename(file_path), binary_data))

conn.commit()
conn.close()

You can use DBBlobEditor to Batch insert SQLite table BLOB data from files

3. Querying Binary Data from a BLOB Column

When querying binary data from a BLOB column, you can retrieve the data and save it to a file. Here’s a Python example:

import sqlite3

# Connect to the SQLite database
conn = sqlite3.connect('your_database.db')
cursor = conn.cursor()

# Query the binary data
cursor.execute("SELECT file_content FROM files WHERE id = 1")
result = cursor.fetchone()

if result:
    binary_data = result[0]
    # Save the binary data to a file
    with open('retrieved.jpg', 'wb') as file:
        file.write(binary_data)

conn.close()

You can use DBBlobEditor to Batch export SQLite table BLOB data to files

Storage: Storing large BLOB data can cause the database file to grow rapidly. You may want to consider storing files on the file system and only keeping references (such as file paths) in the database.
Performance: Inserting and retrieving large BLOB data can be slow, especially for large – scale applications. You should optimize your code and database access patterns to handle such operations efficiently.

Here are some common use cases for storing binary data using the SQLite BLOB data type:

1. Storing Images

Images can be stored as SQLite BLOB data.

2. Audio and Video Storage

You can store the media (Audio and Video) files SQLite BLOB data.

3. Document Storage

You can store various types of documents such as PDFs, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets SQLite BLOB data.

In summary, SQLite’s BLOB data type allows you to store binary data, but you need to be aware of storage and performance issues when using it.