STORING THE UNCOMPRESSED DATA LENGTH IN A LOB MAP TO SPEED SUBSTRING ACCESS WITHIN A LOB VALUE

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for retrieving data in a computer. In accordance with the present invention, large object data is compressed until the large object data fits within one data page. An uncompressed large object data length is stored in a large object map, wherein the stored uncompressed large object data length is associated with the compressed large object data. A portion of the compressed large object data is located for performing a data processing function by using the stored uncompressed large object data length. The portion of the large object data is stored in the database.