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

• Import file data to SQL Server [TEXT, NTEXT, VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX)] (CLOB)
• Export SQL Server [TEXT, NTEXT, VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX)] (CLOB) data to files
• View and edit SQL Server TEXT / NTEXT / VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX) data
• Batch export SQL Server query results TEXT / NTEXT / VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX) data to files
• Batch update SQL Server table TEXT / NTEXT / VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX) data from files
• Batch insert SQL Server table TEXT / NTEXT / VARCHAR(MAX) / NVARCHAR(MAX) data from files

SQL Server CLOB - type family and size limits

Type in Microsoft SQL Server	Maximum size
VARCHAR(MAX)	up to 2 GB, non-Unicode
NVARCHAR(MAX)	up to 2 GB, roughly one billion characters (2 bytes each)
TEXT / NTEXT	deprecated - do not use in new tables

CLOB versus BLOB 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.

CLOB 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 CLOB 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