Database Character Set and Code Page Considerations

Data within a database is defined by a set of parameters. Each character within the database is identified by a specific language preference code value. A collection of characters within a defined database is called a character set or code page. A character set or code page setting is a scheme for encoding character data. Every character is defined by a unique hexadecimal value. These values can change between databases and languages. Every language is represented by at least one character set. Some character sets may contain multiple languages.

For example, the Western European character set contains all characters common to the Western European languages (Aa - Zz) and all special characters unique to specific languages, such as ', ', ', and '. Asian character sets are specific to one language.

The software uses code page conversions to control the consistent or desired display of data. A code page conversion adjusts the hexadecimal values of different characters so that the appearance of text on the desktop is the same with different code pages.

When installing or upgrading the database, set up the code page for the language before loading your language specifics for Release 9.2.

See Also

Single-Byte and Double-Byte Considerations to determine the LocalCodeSet and code page settings for your database machine environment.