file extension LOB

File extension LOB description:

LOB and XML files have certain shared behaviors with regard to the import and export utilities.

When exporting data, if one or more LOB paths are specified with the LOBS TO option, the export utility will cycle between the paths to write each successful LOB value to the appropriate LOB file. Similarly, if one or more XML paths are specified with the XML TO option, the export utility will cycle between the paths to write each successive QDM (XQuery Data Model) instance to the appropriate XML file. By default, LOB values and QDM instances are written to the same path to which the exported relational data is written. Unless the LOBSINSEPFILES or XMLINSEPFILES file type modifier is set, both LOB files and XML files can have multiple values concatenated to the same file.

The LOBFILE option provides a means to specify the base name of the LOB files generated by the export utility. Similarly, the XMLFILE option provides a means to specify the base name of the XML files generated by the export utility. The default LOB file base name is the name of the exported data file, with the extension .lob. The default XML file base name is the name of the exported data file, with the extension .xml. The full name of the exported LOB file or XML file therefore consists of the base name, followed by a number extension that is padded to three digits, and the extension .lob or .xml.

When importing data, a LOB Location Specifier (LLS) is compatible with an XML target column, and an XML Data Specifier (XDS) is compatible with a LOB target column. If the LOBS FROM option is not specified, the LOB files to import are assumed to reside in the same path as the input relational data file. Similarly, if the XML FROM option is not specified, the XML files to import are assumed to reside in the same path as the input relational data file.