Question: How do I store a Microsoft Word document in Oracle table?  I need to upload a Word document into an Oracle table and I need to know the solution.

Answer:  Oracle supports two ways to store documents in an Oracle table:

• Internal LOBs (inline document):  The LOB is stored inside of the database table in a way that optimizes performance and supplies an efficient access environment, taking advantage of Oracle Database security and reliability features.
  
  
  
• External LOBS (BFILE locator):  The LOBs remain stored outside of Oracle in an external file location, as in an operating system flat file.  The database itself holds an internal reference to the external file(s), enabling access to each external file's data via SQL (data type BFILE).

The Oracle database has several methods for loading a MS-Word doc file into an Oracle table:

• Use Apex to store the Word doc - Storing a word document into an Oracle table is easy if you use APEX.  This uses the wwv_flow_files Apex utility to make it simple to store documents and images into Oracle table columns.  See my notes on storing documents in Apex.
  
  
• Store the word document on the server and use BFILE - You can also leave the Word documentss in a flat file, and use  the BFILE utility to map the document into Oracle using the the dbms_lob.loadfromfile utility.  The advantage is that you don't have to actually load the Word document into an Oracle tablespace, but the disadvantage is that the Word document is outside of Oracle, and it cannot be managed (backed-up, kept consistent) is if the Word doc resided inside an Oracle table.
  
  
• Store the Word document inside the Oracle table - The third option is to use a PL/SQL procedure to store the PDF directly into an Oracle table, and you use the same dbms_lob.loadfromfile utility

Also see my notes on storing a PDF file in an Oracle table and storing photographs in Oracle tables.

Loading a BFILE reference to a Word document into an Oracle table

Here is a simple example of storing a reference to a Word document in an Oracle table.  Note that the MS Word doc stays in /tmp/mydoc.doc, and only the reference to the Word document is loaded into the Oracle table:

create table
   store_files
   (file_id number,
    file_name BFILE);

create directory my_dir AS '/tmp';

Insert into
   store_files
 VALUES
   (1, BFILENAME('my_dir', 'mydoc.doc'));

Loading a Word document into an Oracle table

Note that you are better off by actually loading the MS-Word document into a CLOB column of an Oracle table using the dbms_lob package.  This way, the MS Word document can be managed and controlled by Oracle.  See my notes here on using dbms_lob to load a document into an Oracle table.

Here is an example of physically loading a Word document into an Oracle table.  First, we create a table to hold the MS Word document.  This table has three columns, a document number (a sequence), a MS-Word file name, and the BLOB which holds the text of the Word document:

create table
   store_files (
      file_id number,
      file_name varchar2(20),
      file_copy blob);

Next, we write a PL/SQL snippet to load the document:

create or replace procedure
   load_document_into_table
   (p_file_id   in store_files.file_id%type,
    p_file_name in store_files.file_name%type) as
v_bfile bfile;
v_blob blob;
begin

insert into
   store_files
   (file_id, file_name, file_copy)
values
   (p_file_id, p_file_name, empty_blob())
return image into v_blob;
-- v_blob contains the initialized blob object
--get a bfile locator that is associated with the physical file on the directory
v_bfile := bfilename('src_files', p_file_name);
--open the file using dbms_lob
dbms_lob.fileopen(v_bfile, dbms_lob.file_readonly);
--load the file into the blob pointer
dbms_lob..loadfromfile(v_blob, v_bfile, dbms_lob.getlength(v_bfile));
--close the file
dbms_lob.fileclose(v_bfile);
commit;
end;
/

Next, we can execute this code and load the Word document mydoc.doc into our table

SQL> exec load_document_to_table(1,'mydoc.doc') ;

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