How to Store BLOB data in Sqlite Using Tcl - sql

Question

I have a Tcl TK application that has a Sqlite back-end. I pretty much understand the syntax for inserting, manipulating, and reading string data; however, I do not understand how to store pictures or files into Sqlite with Tcl.
I do know I have to create a column that holds BLOB data in Sqlite. I just don't know what to do on the Tcl side of things. If anyone knows how to do this or has a good reference to suggest for me, I would really appreciate it.
Thank you,
Damion

Answer 1

In my code, I basically open the file as a binary, load its content into a Tcl variable, and stuff that into the SQLite db. So, something like this...
# load the file's contents
set fileID [open $file RDONLY]
fconfigure $fileID -translation binary
set content [read $fileID}
close $fileID
# store the data in a blob field of the db
$db eval {INSERT OR REPLACE INTO files (content) VALUES ($content)}
Obviously, you'll want to season to taste, and you're table will probably contain additional columns...

Answer 2

The incrblob command looks like what you want: http://sqlite.org/tclsqlite.html#incrblob
The "incrblob" method
This method opens a TCL channel that
can be used to read or write into a
preexisting BLOB in the database. The
syntax is like this:
dbcmd incrblob ?-readonly?? ?DB? TABLE COLUMN ROWID
The command returns a new TCL channel
for reading or writing to the BLOB.
The channel is opened using the
underlying sqlite3_blob_open()
C-langauge interface. Close the
channel using the close command of
TCL.