title: Storing snappy encoded data in varchar column
body: <p>I am using Snappy-java to encode JSON data and I want to store the result in database in a varchar column.<br>
  The database is an oracle database with ISO-8859-1 encoding.<br>
  I am facing an encoding problem when inserting the data. It would seem that some characters are not recognised by Oracle.  </p>
  
  <p>I've found a workaround by using Base64 encoding on the compressed data before inserting it. I can then retrieve it just fine :)</p>
  
  <p>The problem with that is that Base64 encoding increases the length of the data that I am then storing, hereby reducing the savings gained with Snappy...</p>
  
  <p>So my question is: How can I store that data without encoding it in Base64?
  The reason I want to use a varchar is because I want to be able to access the table using an oracle index without ever accessing the table (performance is definitely an issue).</p>
  
  <p>I have tried other compression algorithms as well, but they all seem to have the same problem.
  I have also looked at yEnc but I cannot find any java encoder. Moreover I am not sure that I understands all the problems listed with yEnc, so I am bit reluctant using it.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks a lot for any help!</p>