SQL_ASCII and UNICODE server_encoding

Hi,
i'd like to ask if there is any difference in server_encoding
SQL_ASCII and UNICODE (there must be
one since the different terms), but
AFAIU
-databases which store in SQL_ASCII (i.e. server_encoding=SQL_ASCII)
have no problem storing 8bit chars with the first bit set.
-databases with server_encoding=UNICODE actually store in UTF-8 encoding
-The purpose of UTF-8 is to make possible that multibyte chars can
be stored in systems that represent chars in 8 bits
-So SQL_ASCII is fine for UTF-8, hence multibyte UNICODE.

So if SQL_ASCII should be fine for UTF-8 storage.
(here i must have missed something, tho..), whats
the purpose of server_encoding=UNICODE?
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-Achilleus


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Re: SQL_ASCII and UNICODE server_encoding

O kyrios Tom Lane egrapse stis Aug 16, 2004 :

> Achilleus Mantzios writes:
> > So if SQL_ASCII should be fine for UTF-8 storage.
> > (here i must have missed something, tho..), whats
> > the purpose of server_encoding=UNICODE?
>
> If you use SQL_ASCII, the server will *store* Unicode just fine, but
> it won't *know* it is Unicode. So if you just want raw data storage
> it doesn't matter. If you would like to sort the data, upper-case
> or lower-case it, or have automatic conversions to different client
> encodings, you had better tell the server the truth about what it
> is storing.

Thanx, i guess i didnt realize the value of conversion,sorting,etc...

>
> regards, tom lane
>
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-Achilleus


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Re: SQL_ASCII and UNICODE server_encoding

Achilleus Mantzios writes:
> So if SQL_ASCII should be fine for UTF-8 storage.
> (here i must have missed something, tho..), whats
> the purpose of server_encoding=UNICODE?

If you use SQL_ASCII, the server will *store* Unicode just fine, but
it won't *know* it is Unicode. So if you just want raw data storage
it doesn't matter. If you would like to sort the data, upper-case
or lower-case it, or have automatic conversions to different client
encodings, you had better tell the server the truth about what it
is storing.

regards, tom lane

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