Extracts individual LONG BINARY and LONG VARCHAR cells to individual operating system files on the server.
file-name-expression – the name of the output file into which the LONG BINARY or LONG VARCHAR data is written. This file name can be up to (32K -1) bytes in length, but must be a valid path name that is supported by the file system.
large-object-column – the name of the LONG BINARY or LONG VARCHAR column.
If the LONG BINARY or LONG VARCHAR cell value is NULL, no file is opened and no data is written.
The file path is relative to where the server was started and the open and write operations execute with the permissions of the server process. Tape devices are not supported for the BFILE output file.
LONG BINARY and LONG VARCHAR cells retrieved other than with the BFILE function (that is, retrieved through the client/server database connection later) are limited in size to a maximum length of 2GB. Use SUBSTRING64 or BYTE_SUBSTR64 to retrieve LONG BINARY cells greater than 2GB using a SELECT (SELECT, OPEN CURSOR). Use SUBSTRING64 to retrieve LONG VARCHAR cells greater than 2GB using a SELECT (SELECT, OPEN CURSOR). Some connection drivers, for example ODBC, JDBC™, and Open Client™, do not allow more than 2GB to be returned in one SELECT.
You can use BFILE with or without the data extraction facility.