Final answer:
The CLOB data type in Oracle is used to store large amounts of character data, such as text-based documents. It allows for efficient manipulation and retrieval of large textual data.
Step-by-step explanation:
The CLOB data type in Oracle stands for Character Large Object. It is used to store large amounts of character data in the database. CLOB can store up to 4 gigabytes of character data, making it suitable for storing text-based documents, such as articles, reports, or XML files.
The CLOB data type allows for efficient manipulation and retrieval of large textual data. It provides various built-in functions and operators to work with CLOB data, such as concatenation, substring extraction, and searching for specific patterns within the data.
For example, you can define a table in Oracle with a column of the CLOB data type to store the contents of a long article. You can then perform operations on that column, such as searching for specific words or extracting a portion of the article for display.