Retrieving CLOB Values with getCharacterStream() Method

This section describes how to retrieve CLOB values with the ResultSet.getCharacterStream() method.

CLOB values can also be retrieved with the getCharacterStream() method on the ResultSet object, which will return a Reader object. Then you can read the CLOB values from the Reader object with the read() method. The sample program below shows you how to create Reader objects with the getCharacterStream() method. A utility method is included to read all characters from a Ready object and save them in a file.

/* SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.io.*;
import java.sql.*;
public class SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {
      com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDataSource ds
        = new com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDataSource();
      ds.setServerName("localhost");
//      ds.setPortNumber(60782);
      ds.setInstanceName("SQLEXPRESS");
      ds.setDatabaseName("AdventureWorks2019");
      ds.setUser("Herong");
      ds.setPassword("T0pSecret");
      con = ds.getConnection();

// Retrieving CLOB value with getCharacterStream()
      Statement sta = con.createStatement();
      ResultSet res = sta.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM Article");
      int i = 0;
      while (res.next() && i<3) {
        i++;
        System.out.println("Record ID: "+res.getInt("ID"));
        System.out.println("   Subject = "+res.getString("Subject"));
        Reader bodyOut = res.getCharacterStream("Body");
        String fileOut = "ClobOut_"+res.getInt("ID")+".txt";
        saveReader(fileOut,bodyOut);
        bodyOut.close();
        System.out.println("   Body = (Saved in "+fileOut+")");
      }
      res.close();

      sta.close();
      con.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      System.err.println("Exception: "+e.getMessage());
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
  public static void saveReader(String name, Reader body) {
    int c;
    try {
      Writer f = new FileWriter(name);
      while ((c=body.read())>-1) {
        f.write(c);
      }
      f.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

Surprisingly, the execution failed with newer versions of JDK, JDBC Driver and SQL Server:

herong> java -cp .;mssql-jdbc-9.4.1.jre16.jar \
  SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream

Record ID: 1
   Subject = Test on INSERT statement
java.io.IOException: Stream closed
  at java.io.BufferedReader.ensureOpen(BufferedReader.java:122)
  at java.io.BufferedReader.read(BufferedReader.java:179)
  at SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream.saveReader
     (SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream.java:47)
  at SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream.main
     (SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream.java:30)
   Body = (Saved in ClobOut_1.txt)

Record ID: 2
   (Same exception)

Record ID: 5
   (Same exception)

The same program was working with JDK 1.6, SQL Server 2005 and JDBC Driver 1.0:

herong> Progra~1\java\jdk1.6.0_2\bin\java \
   -cp .;sqljdbc.jar SqlServerClobGetCharacterStream

Record ID: 1
   Subject = Test on INSERT statement
   Body = (Saved in ClobOut_1.txt)

Record ID: 2
   Subject = Test of the setString() method
   Body = (Saved in ClobOut_2.txt)

Record ID: 7
   Subject = Test of setCharacterStream() methods
   Body = (Saved in ClobOut_7.txt)

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Introduction

 JDK (Java SE) Installation

 Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition

 Microsoft JDBC Driver for SQL Server

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - Query Statements and Result Sets

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DatabaseMetaData Object

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DDL Statements

 Microsoft JDBC Driver - DML Statements

 SQL Server - PreparedStatement

SQL Server CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

 Overview of CLOB (Character Large Object)

 Create Tables with CLOB Columns

 Inserting CLOB Values with SQL INSERT Statements

 Inserting CLOB Values with setString() Method

 Inserting CLOB Values with setCharacterStream() Method

 Closing InputStream Too Early on setCharacterStream()

 Retrieving CLOB Values with getString() Method

Retrieving CLOB Values with getCharacterStream() Method

 Retrieving CLOB Values with getClob() Method

 Inserting CLOB Values with setClob() Method

 SQL Server BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Using Connection Pool with JDBC

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - Flat Text Files

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS Access

 JDBC-ODBC Bridge Driver - MS SQL Server

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB