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Title
Why is the BLOB check box option grayed out in the columns to exclude in the Export Dataset tool? -
Description
Trying to export a dataset that includes both BLOBs and CLOBs columns, I see the options to exclude by default are CLOB and BLOB. I can un-check the CLOB, but cannot un-check the BLOB to show in the exported file?
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Resolution
We do not export Blobs because it contains binary data and when exporting, it will just display garbage which is useless to excel or a text file to read. The reason it's grayed out, is because it shows that BLOB's will be excluded and there is nothing you can do to include it to the exported file.
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Additional Information
If planning to export Blobs for backup purposes, Toad for Oracle is not the best tool for backups due to these limitations. Other tools are available which are better equiped to handle Oracle backups, such as Litespeed. http://www.quest.com/litespeed-engine-for-oracle/