Chapter 9: Configuring Character Sets, Sort Orders, and Languages

Character sets directory structure

Figure 9-3 shows the directory structure for the Western European character sets that come with Adaptive Server. There is a separate subdirectory for each character set in the charsets directory. Within the subdirectory for each character set (for example, cp850) are the character set and sort order definition files and terminal-specific files.

If you load additional character sets, they also appear in the charsets directory:

Figure 9-3: Structure of the charsets directory

Graphic showing the charsets directory and the many directories that fall under it.

The following global variables contain information about character sets:

**Table 9-10: Global variables used for character sets**
Global variable	Description
@@char_convert	Contains 0 if character set conversion is not in effect. Contains 1 if character set conversion is in effect.
@@client_csname	The client’s character set name. Set to NULL if client character set has never been initialized; otherwise, it contains the name of the character set for the connection.
@@client_csid	The client’s character set ID. Set to -1 if client character set has never been initialized; otherwise, it contains the client character set ID from syscharsets for the connection.
@@client_csexpansion	Returns the expansion factor used when converting from server's character set to client's character set.
@@maxcharlen	The maximum length, in bytes, of a character in the Adaptive Server default character set.
@@ncharsize	The maximum length, in bytes, of a character set in the current server default character set.
@@unicharsize	Equals 2.

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