Storing Binary Data

PostgreSQL® provides two distinct ways to store binary data. Binary data can be stored in a table using the data type BYTEA or by using the Large Object feature which stores the binary data in a separate table in a special format and refers to that table by storing a value of type OID in your table.

In order to determine which method is appropriate you need to understand the limitations of each method. The BYTEA data type is not well suited for storing very large amounts of binary data. While a column of type BYTEA can hold up to 1 GB of binary data, it would require a huge amount of memory to process such a large value. The Large Object method for storing binary data is better suited to storing very large values, but it has its own limitations. Specifically deleting a row that contains a Large Object reference does not delete the Large Object. Deleting the Large Object is a separate operation that needs to be performed. Large Objects also have some security issues since anyone connected to the database can view and/or modify any Large Object, even if they don’t have permissions to view/update the row containing the Large Object reference.

Version 7.2 was the first release of the JDBC driver that supports the BYTEA data type. The introduction of this functionality in 7.2 has introduced a change in behaviour as compared to previous releases. Since 7.2, the methods getBytes() , setBytes() , getBinaryStream() , and setBinaryStream() operate on the BYTEA data type. In 7.1 and earlier, these methods operated on the OID data type associated with Large Objects. It is possible to revert the driver back to the old 7.1 behaviour by setting the property compatible on the Connection object to the value 7.1. More details on connection properties are available in the section called Connection Parameters.

To use the BYTEA data type you should simply use the getBytes() , setBytes() , getBinaryStream() , or setBinaryStream() methods.

To use the Large Object functionality you can use either the LargeObject class provided by the PostgreSQL® JDBC driver, or by using the getBLOB() and setBLOB() methods.

IMPORTANT

You must access Large Objects within an SQL transaction block. You can start a transaction block by calling setAutoCommit(false) .

Example 7.1, “Processing Binary Data in JDBC” contains some examples on how to process binary data using the PostgreSQL® JDBC driver.

For example, suppose you have a table containing the file names of images and you also want to store the image in a BYTEA column:

CREATE TABLE images (imgname text, img bytea);

To insert an image, you would use:

File file = new File("myimage.gif");
try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
     PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO images VALUES (?, ?)"); ) {
    ps.setString(1, file.getName());
    ps.setBinaryStream(2, fis, (int) file.length());
    ps.executeUpdate();
}

Here, setBinaryStream() transfers a set number of bytes from a stream into the column of type BYTEA. This also could have been done using the setBytes() method if the contents of the image was already in a byte[] .

NOTE

The length parameter to setBinaryStream must be correct. There is no way to indicate that the stream is of unknown length. If you are in this situation, you must read the stream yourself into temporary storage and determine the length. Now with the correct length you may send the data from temporary storage on to the driver.

Retrieving an image is even easier. (We use PreparedStatement here, but the Statement class can equally be used.

try (PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("SELECT img FROM images WHERE imgname = ?"); ) {
    ps.setString(1,"myimage.gif");
    try (ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();) {
        while(rs.next()){
            byte[] imgBytes = rs.getBytes(1);
            // use the data in some way here
        }
    }
}

Here the binary data was retrieved as an byte[]. You could have used a InputStream object instead.

Alternatively you could be storing a very large file and want to use the LargeObject API to store the file:

CREATE TABLE imageslo (imgname text, imgoid oid);

To insert an image, you would use:

// All LargeObject API calls must be within a transaction block
conn.setAutoCommit(false);

File inputFile = new File("myimage.gif");
// Now insert the row into imageslo
try (PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO imageslo VALUES (?, ?)");
     FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(inputFile); ) {
    ps.setString(1,file.getName());
    ps.setBlob(2, fis, inputFile.length());
    ps.executeUpdate();
}

// Finally, commit the transaction.
conn.commit();

Retrieving the image from the Large Object:

// All LargeObject API calls must be within a transaction block
conn.setAutoCommit(false);

try (PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("SELECT imgoid FROM imageslo WHERE imgname = ?"); ) {
    ps.setString(1, "myimage.gif");
    try (ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery(); ) {
        while (rs.next()) {
            // Read all data at once
            byte[] contents = rs.getBytes(1);
            // Read all data as InputStream
            Blob blob = rs.getBlob(1);
            try (InputStream is = blob.getBinaryStream(); ) {
                // Process the input stream. The input stream is buffered, so you don't need to
                // wrap it in a BufferedInputStream
            } finally {
                blob.free();
            }
        }
    }
}

// Finally, commit the transaction.
conn.commit();

Updating the contents of the Large Object:

// All LargeObject API calls must be within a transaction block
conn.setAutoCommit(false);

try (PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("SELECT imgoid FROM imageslo WHERE imgname = ?"); ) {
    ps.setString(1, "myimage.gif");
    try (ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery(); ) {
        while (rs.next()) {
            Blob blob = rs.getBlob(1);
            try (OutputStream os = blob.setBinaryStream(0); ) {
                // Write data to the output stream. The output stream is buffered, so you don't need to
                // wrap it in a BufferedOutputStream
            } finally {
                blob.free();
            }
        }
    }
}

// Finally, commit the transaction.
conn.commit();