TO_MULTI_BYTE

Syntax

Description of to_multi_byte.gif follows
Description of the illustration to_multi_byte.gif

Purpose

TO_MULTI_BYTE returns char with all of its single-byte characters converted to their corresponding multibyte characters. char can be of datatype CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. The value returned is in the same datatype as char.

Any single-byte characters in char that have no multibyte equivalents appear in the output string as single-byte characters. This function is useful only if your database character set contains both single-byte and multibyte characters.

This function does not support CLOB data directly. However, CLOBs can be passed in as arguments through implicit data conversion.

See Also:

"Datatype Comparison Rules" for more information.

Examples

The following example illustrates converting from a single byte A to a multibyte A in UTF8:

SELECT dump(TO_MULTI_BYTE( 'A')) FROM DUAL; 

DUMP(TO_MULTI_BYTE('A')) 
------------------------ 
Typ=1 Len=3: 239,188,161