SQL Server BLOB Tools - Import, Export, View and Edit

• Import file data to SQL Server [IMAGE, VARBINARY(MAX)] (BLOB)
• Export SQL Server [IMAGE, VARBINARY(MAX)] (BLOB) data to files
• View and edit BLOB data stored in SQL Server
• View and edit image stored in SQL Server IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX) field
• View PDF stored in SQL Server IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX) field
• Batch export SQL Server query results IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX) data to files
• Batch update SQL Server table IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX) data from files
• Batch insert SQL Server table IMAGE / VARBINARY(MAX) data from files

SQL Server BLOB - type family and size limits

Type in Microsoft SQL Server	Maximum size
VARBINARY(MAX)	up to 2 GB (the recommended type)
IMAGE	2 GB, but deprecated since SQL Server 2005
FILESTREAM	for values beyond 2 GB - data lives in the file system

BLOB versus CLOB in Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server has no types named BLOB or CLOB at all: the equivalents are `VARBINARY(MAX)` for binary and `VARCHAR(MAX)` / `NVARCHAR(MAX)` for text. The `MAX` suffix is what matters - a plain `VARBINARY(n)` tops out at 8,000 bytes.

What limits you first

2 GB per value. Beyond that you have to move to FILESTREAM, which stores the payload in the file system and keeps a pointer in the table. SET TEXTSIZE can also cap how much a single read returns.

BLOB from the command line

• Export: bcp "SELECT * FROM t" queryout out.dat -T -w
• Import: bcp t in in.dat -T -w or OPENROWSET(BULK ...)

Things that bite with BLOB in Microsoft SQL Server

• Declaring VARBINARY(n) or VARCHAR(n) instead of (MAX) caps the column at 8,000 bytes and truncates anything longer
• NVARCHAR(MAX) stores two bytes per character, so its "2 GB" is about one billion characters, not two billion
• IMAGE, TEXT and NTEXT are deprecated - use the *MAX types
• Replication hits the max text repl size setting long before the type limit