How to Store Files in a MySQL Database Using BLOB Columns?

Storing Files in MySQL Database: Column Type and Insert Statement

When inserting a file into a MySQL database, the appropriate column type to use is a BLOB (Binary Large Object) column. BLOB columns store binary data, including files, and come in varying sizes:

• TINYBLOB: 255 bytes
• BLOB: 65535 bytes
• MEDIUMBLOB: 16777215 bytes
• LONGBLOB: 4294967295 bytes

Note: It's not advisable to store large files in MySQL databases due to performance impacts and increased database size.

Insert Statement:

The INSERT statement for inserting a file into a BLOB column is similar to other data types, but with a slight variation:

INSERT INTO table_name (column_name) VALUES (load_file('/path/to/file.ext'));

Here, /path/to/file.ext represents the absolute path to the file you want to insert.

Example:

To insert a file named document.pdf into a BLOB column named file_data in the document_table, use the following statement:

INSERT INTO document_table (file_data) VALUES (load_file('/home/user/documents/document.pdf'));

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