# fbsql_read_blob

(PHP 4 >= 4.2.0, PHP 5)

fbsql_read_blob — Read a BLOB from the database

### Description

string fbsql_read_blob ( string `$blob_handle` [, resource `$link_identifier` ] )

Reads BLOB data from the database.

If a select statement contains BLOB and/or CLOB columns FrontBase will return the data directly when data is fetched. This default behavior can be changed with fbsql_set_lob_mode() so the fetch functions will return handles to BLOB and CLOB data. If a handle is fetched a user must call fbsql_read_blob() to get the actual BLOB data from the database.

### Parameters

`blob_handle`

  A BLOB handle, returned by fbsql_create_blob().

`link_identifier`

  A FrontBase link identifier returned by fbsql_connect() or fbsql_pconnect().

  If optional and not specified, the function will try to find an open link to the FrontBase server and if no such link is found it will try to create one as if fbsql_connect() was called with no arguments

### Return Values

Returns a string containing the specified BLOB data.

### Examples

Example#1 fbsql_read_blob() example

`<?php
$link = fbsql_pconnect("localhost", "_SYSTEM", "secret")
or die("Could not connect");
$sql = "SELECT BLOB_COLUMN FROM BLOB_TABLE;";
$rs = fbsql_query($sql, $link);
$row_data = fbsql_fetch_row($rs);
// $row_data[0] will now contain the blob data for the first row
fbsql_free_result($rs);
$rs = fbsql_query($sql, $link);
fbsql_set_lob_mode($rs, FBSQL_LOB_HANDLE);
$row_data = fbsql_fetch_row($rs);
// $row_data[0] will now contain a handle to the BLOB data in the first row
$blob_data = fbsql_read_blob($row_data[0]);
fbsql_free_result($rs);
?>`

### See Also

- fbsql_create_blob()
- fbsql_read_clob()
- fbsql_set_lob_mode()