Thread: Moving text columns, when it actually is large

I have to restructure some tables, coalescing common elements from three 
tables (sub-classes) into a single table (super-class).  Each source 
table has a text field which actually gets stuffed with a largish (1Mb+) 
blob of xml.

Is there any way to simply, um, er, transplant the pointer rather than 
actually copy the data?

Ever hopeful,
rjs

Rob Sargent wrote:
> I have to restructure some tables, coalescing common elements from three 
> tables (sub-classes) into a single table (super-class).  Each source 
> table has a text field which actually gets stuffed with a largish (1Mb+) 
> blob of xml.
> 
> Is there any way to simply, um, er, transplant the pointer rather than 
> actually copy the data?

If they are large-objects (stored via the lo_xxx interface) yes. If not, 
no. I take it the large blob of xml is one of the fields that you are 
classifying as common?

--   Richard Huxton  Archonet Ltd