|
<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Binary data fields |
  
|
|
<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Binary data fields |
|
(Bytes, large lumps of (Memo) text, formatted text, documents, graphics, audio or media files, etc.)
Except for Bytes data, large lumps of binary data are stored in specialized BLOB-fields for Binary Large Objects.
So, basically binary data is not immediately suited for standard tabular data tables, most obvious for non-visual data as e.g. video and sound data, but also MS Word documents, PDF-files and collected data of various custom formats - however in contemporary databases easily stored in the data cells but not displayed in the sheet view.
Such data may be either large lumps of text not fitting in normal cells but stored in specialized Memo fields/cells, or virtual binary data as various document formats (Word, PDF, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.), images or Bytes data.
Due to the specialized content, data usually just display as marked with the type of content, which in PdxEditor may be shown in local dialogs when double clicking the individual cell, from which you may view and import/export the content.
Because of the nature of the contents, data from these cells are not readily convertible to text, and thus NOT included in exports and import via PdxEditor except for Memo-text and FormattedMemo (RTF) text.
However, some other database systems may export and export this kind of data to and from the containing tables, though this will be highly dependent on the specifications of the specific database system.
For this reason, binary data are often better stored externally and only specified as links to the external storage location.
Except for the true binary data as mentioned above, Memo and FormattedMemo data, though stored as BLOB fields are essentially just plain text, and thus easily im- and exported with almost any database system - see Binary import/export: Memo/FmtMemo.
Minor lumps of binary data as of the Bytes type are however conveniently and easily stored in data tables as in the Paradox tables - though this data type is not supported by dBASE tables of any version (including level 7).
PdxEditor exports Bytes data, also via the general Delimited Text Export as well as to Excel, converted as text holding data in the format of hexadecimal coded data, easily interpreted if reimported by other systems.
See also Bytes fields and Binary import/exports
__________________________