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I would like to obtain the byte size of a blob.

I am using Postgresql and would like to obtain the size using an SQL query. Something like this:

SELECT sizeof(field) FROM table;

Is this possible in Postgresql?

Update: I have read the postgresql manual and could not find an appropriate function to calculate the file size. Also, the blob is stored as a large object.

Answers

Not that I've used large objects, but looking at the docs: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/interactive/lo-interfaces.html#LO-TELL

I think you have to use the same technique as some file system APIs require: seek to the end, then tell the position. PostgreSQL has SQL functions that appear to wrap the internal C functions. I couldn't find much documentation, but this worked:

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_lo_size(oid) RETURNS bigint
VOLATILE STRICT
LANGUAGE 'plpgsql'
AS $$
DECLARE
    fd integer;
    sz bigint;
BEGIN
    -- Open the LO; N.B. it needs to be in a transaction otherwise it will close immediately.
    -- Luckily a function invocation makes its own transaction if necessary.
    -- The mode x'40000'::int corresponds to the PostgreSQL LO mode INV_READ = 0x40000.
    fd := lo_open($1, x'40000'::int);
    -- Seek to the end.  2 = SEEK_END.
    PERFORM lo_lseek(fd, 0, 2);
    -- Fetch the current file position; since we're at the end, this is the size.
    sz := lo_tell(fd);
    -- Remember to close it, since the function may be called as part of a larger transaction.
    PERFORM lo_close(fd);
    -- Return the size.
    RETURN sz;
END;
$$; 

Testing it:

-- Make a new LO, returns an OID e.g. 1234567
SELECT lo_create(0);

-- Populate it with data somehow
...

-- Get the length.
SELECT get_lo_size(1234567);

It seems the LO functionality is designed to be used mostly through the client or through low-level server programming, but at least they've provided some SQL visible functions for it, which makes the above possible. I did a query for SELECT relname FROM pg_proc where relname LIKE 'lo%' to get myself started. Vague memories of C programming and a bit of research for the mode x'40000'::int and SEEK_END = 2 value were needed for the rest!