Home
Client APIs and toolsYou can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix® database servers.
GLS User's GuideThe Informix® GLS User's Guide describes the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in Informix® products.
SQL featuresThese topics explain how the GLS feature affects the Informix® implementation of SQL.
Character data typesThe locale affects the collation of built-in SQL character data types.
Localized collation of character dataThe choice of locale can affect the collating order of NCHAR and NVARCHAR character data types.
The NCHAR data typeThe NCHAR data type stores character data in a fixed-length field as a string of single-byte or multibyte letters, numbers, and other characters that are supported by the code set of your database locale.
Multibyte characters with NCHARTo store multibyte character data in an NCHAR column, your database locale must support a code set that includes the same multibyte characters.

Multibyte characters with NCHAR

To store multibyte character data in an NCHAR column, your database locale must support a code set that includes the same multibyte characters.

When you store multibyte characters, make sure to calculate the number of bytes that are needed. The size parameter of the NCHAR data type refers to the number of bytes of storage that is reserved for the data, rather than to the number of logical characters.

HCL Informix® supports the SQL_LOGICAL_CHAR configuration parameter, which can enable logical-character semantics in the declarations of NCHAR and other built-in character data types. For more information, see Data definition statements.

Because one multibyte character requires several bytes for storage, the value of size bytes does not indicate the number of characters that the column can hold. The total number of multibyte characters that you can store in the column is less than the total number of bytes that you can store in the column. Make sure to declare the size value of the NCHAR column in such a way that it can hold enough characters for your purposes.

Rate this topic

5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star

Comment on this topic.

By clicking this box, you acknowledge that you are NOT a U.S. Federal Government employee or agency, nor are you submitting information with respect to or on behalf of one. HCL provides software and services to U.S. Federal Government customers through its partners immixGroup, Inc. Contact this team at https://hcltechsw.com/resources/us-government-contact. Do not include any personal data in this Comment box.