Hi!

I'm trying to store some pictures on a spreadsheet into a BLOB column in an
Oracle table. My strategy so far is as follows:

1. Copy the picture to a chart

2. Export the chart to a GIF file

3. Insert a row into the Oracle table with some keys (from the spreadsheet,
offset from the topleftcell of the picture), and an empty BLOB.

4. Open the GIF file, read it (probably 4k chunks at a time) and update the
BLOB in the row just inserted by appending the chunk to the BLOB, until EOF
on the GIF file.

I've got steps 1, 2 and 3 working, and have a stored procedure that takes
key values and RAW input and updates the row by appending the RAW to the BLOB.

How do I open and read the GIF file, in order to send RAW chunks of it to
my SP?

Is there a better way to accomplish this task, taking pictures from the
spreadsheet and storing them in a database?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice,
elmo