Sybase IQ provides two sets of features that are of particular interest when setting up databases for languages.
Collations You can choose from a wide selection of supplied collations when you create a database. By creating your database with the proper collation, you ensure proper sorting of data.
Whenever the database compares strings, sorts strings, or carries out other string operations such as case conversion, it does so using the collation sequence. The database carries out sorting and string comparison when statements such as the following are executed:
Queries with an ORDER BY clause.
Expressions that use string functions, such as LOCATE, SIMILAR, SOUNDEX.
Conditions using the LIKE keyword.
IQ indexes that hold character data are created based on the database collation. The database also uses collations to identify valid or unique identifiers (column names and so on).
Character set translation You can set up Sybase IQ to convert data between the character set encoding on your server and client systems, thus maintaining the integrity of your data even in mixed character set environments.
Character set translation is provided between client and server, and also by the ODBC driver. The Sybase IQ ODBC driver provides OEM to ANSI character set translation and Unicode support.
