title: Retrieving or deleting a row with a blob in Informix 10
body: <p>I'm using Informix 10. Using this command as suggested by <a href="https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/informix-servers/12.10?topic=functions-lotofile-function" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the documentation</a> (well - the closest doc I could find):</p>
  <pre><code>select lotofile(ctbufdata, &quot;foo!&quot;, &quot;client&quot;) from trg_send_stxn where ctstamp1=60004300
  </code></pre>
  <p>(to database <code>syscdr</code>), it gives the error:</p>
  <pre><code>7420: Argument (1: lo_id) is invalid.
  </code></pre>
  <p>The same error occurs if I try to <code>unload to filename select * from</code>...</p>
  <p>If I try to delete the row with <code>delete from trg_send_stxn where</code>...  , the error is:</p>
  <pre><code>(U00001) - blob_destroy: error during processing or invalid LO argument
  </code></pre>
  <p>How can I view this blob? (I want to view its contents to figure out where it came from).</p>
  <p>Or; how can I delete it or otherwise recover from this apparent corruption.</p>
  <hr />
  <p>As suggested in answers -- the command</p>
  <pre><code>select (&quot;0x&quot; || substr(ctbufdata::lvarchar,17,8))::INT sbspace
  from trg_send_stxn
  where ctstamp1=60004300
  </code></pre>
  <p>produces result <code>0</code>. And dropping the <code>where</code> clause produces 418 rows all <code>0</code>.</p>