Retrieving BLOB Values with getBytes() Method

This section describes how to retrieve BLOB values with the ResultSet.getBytes() method.

The simplest way to retrieve the character string value from a BLOB column is to use the getBytes() method on the ResultSet object. Here is short example program:

/* OracleBlobGetBytes.java
 * Copyright (c) HerongYang.com. All Rights Reserved.
 */
import java.io.*;
import java.sql.*;
public class OracleBlobGetBytes {
  public static void main(String [] args) {
    Connection con = null;
    try {
      oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource ds
        = new oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource();
      ds.setDriverType("thin");
      ds.setServerName("localhost");
      ds.setPortNumber(1521);
      ds.setDatabaseName("XE");
      ds.setUser("Herong");
      ds.setPassword("TopSecret");
      con = ds.getConnection();

// Retrieving BLOB value with getBytes()
      Statement sta = con.createStatement();
      ResultSet res = sta.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM Image");
      int i = 0;
      while (res.next() && i<3) {
        i++;
        System.out.println("Record ID: "+res.getInt("ID"));
        System.out.println("   Subject = "+res.getString("Subject"));
        byte[] body = res.getBytes("Body");
        String bodyHex = bytesToHex(body, 32);
        System.out.println("   Body in HEX = "+bodyHex+"...");
      }
      res.close();

      sta.close();
      con.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
  public static String bytesToHex(byte[] bytes, int max) {
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
    for (int i=0; i<bytes.length && i<max; i++) {
      buffer.append(Integer.toHexString(bytes[i] & 0xFF));
    }
    return buffer.toString().toUpperCase();
  }
}

bytesToHex() method is used to convert a byte array to a Hex string. The output of the program confirms that CLOB values can be retrieved with getBytes() method on the ResultSet object:

herong> java -cp .;ojdbc11.jar OracleBlobGetBytes

Record ID: 2
   Subject = Test of the setBytes() method
   Body in HEX = C9CBBBCCCEB9C8CABCCCCEB9C9CBBB...
Record ID: 3
   Subject = Test of setBinaryStream() methods
   Body in HEX = CAFEBABE000340ABA0370447045A020448046A020478...
Record ID: 4
   Subject = Error test of setBinaryStream() method
   Body in HEX = CAFEBABE000340B2A03A0477048A020478049A0204A8...

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) Introduction

 JDK (Java SE) Installation

 Oracle Express Edition Installation on Windows

 Oracle JDBC Drivers

 Oracle - Reference Implementation of JdbcRowSet

 Oracle - PreparedStatement

 Oracle - JBDC CallableStatement

 Oracle CLOB (Character Large Object) - TEXT

Oracle BLOB (Binary Large Object) - BLOB

 Overview of BLOB (Binary Large Object)

 Create Tables with CLOB Columns

 Inserting BLOB Values with SQL INSERT Statements

 Inserting BLOB Values with setBytes() Method

 Inserting BLOB Values with setBinaryStream() Method

 Closing InputStream Too Early on setBinaryStream()

Retrieving BLOB Values with getBytes() Method

 Retrieving BLOB Values with getBinaryStream() Method

 Retrieving BLOB Values with getBlob() Method

 Inserting BLOB Values with setBlob() Method

 Copying BLOB Values to New Rows

 Using Connection Pool with JDBC

 Archived Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB