oracle blob text search

Question

Is it possible to search through blob text using sql statement? I can do select * from $table where f1 like '%foo%' if the f1 is varchar, how about f1 is a blob? Any counter part for this?

Answer 1

This is quite possible and easy to do.

Simply use dbms_lob.instr in conjunction with utl_raw.cast_to_raw

So in your case, if t1 is a BLOB the select would look like:

select *
  from table1
 where dbms_lob.instr (t1, -- the blob
                   utl_raw.cast_to_raw ('foo'), -- the search string cast to raw
                   1, -- where to start. i.e. offset
                   1 -- Which occurrance i.e. 1=first
                    ) > 0 -- location of occurrence. Here I don't care.  Just find any
;