CLOB Internet Abbreviation

Character Large Object

A Character Large Object (CLOB) is a data type used in SQL databases to store character strings that are too long for standard data types like VARCHAR. While a VARCHAR column might be limited to a few thousand characters, a CLOB can typically hold gigabytes of text data, making it ideal for storing the content of a blog post, a long user comment, an entire XML or JSON document, or extensive log entries. The data in a CLOB is stored using the database's default character set. CLOB is specifically designed for plain text, distinguishing it from its sibling, the BLOB (Binary Large Object), which is used for storing binary data like images, audio, or video files. By providing a dedicated type for large-scale text, databases can manage storage and retrieval more efficiently than if they were to use generic binary types. This makes CLOB a critical component in content management systems, logging frameworks, and any application that handles substantial textual information.