<p>I have a file. I want to get its contents into a blob column in my oracle database or into a blob variable in my PL/SQL program. What is the best way to do that?</p>

Depends a bit on your environment.  In Java you could do it something like this...
```
```
// Need as OracleConnection in mConnection

// Set an EMPTY_BLOB()
String update = "UPDATE tablename"+
                " SET   blob_column = EMPTY_BLOB()"+
                " WHERE  ID = "+id;
CallableStatement stmt = mConnection.prepareCall(update);
stmt.executeUpdate();

// Lock the row FOR UPDATE
String select    = "BEGIN " +
                        "  SELECT " + blob_column
                        "  INTO ? " +
                        "  FROM " + tablename +
                        "  WHERE  ID = '" + id + "'" +
                        "  FOR UPDATE; " +
                        "END;";

stmt = mConnection.prepareCall(select);
stmt.registerOutParameter(1, java.sql.Types.BLOB);
stmt.executeUpdate();

BLOB blob = (BLOB) stmt.getBlob(1);
OutputStream bos = blob.setBinaryStream(0L);
FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(file);
//  Code needed here to copy one stream to the other
fis.close();
bos.close();
stmt.close();

mConnection.commit();
```
```
But it really depends what environment / tools you're using.  More info needed.