Sybase 12.4.2 manual Using the default collation, Character set questions and answers, 316

Introduction to international languages and character sets

•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 Adaptive Server 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 Adaptive Server IQ ODBC driver provides OEM to ANSI character set translation and Unicode support.

Using the default collation

If you use the default actions when creating an IQ database, your database has the collation ISO_BINENG. This collation provides optimal performance for IQ databases, but not necessarily the most natural sort order. For more information, see “Performance issues” on page 352.

Note that this differs from Adaptive Server Anywhere, which infers the default collation for new databases from the character set in use by the operating system on which the database is created.

If it is not possible to set up your system in this default manner, you need to decide which collation to use in your database, and whether to use character set translation to ensure that data is exchanged consistently between the pieces of your database system. This chapter provides the information you need to make and implement these decisions.

Character set questions and answers

The following table identifies where you can find answers to questions.

To answer the question...	Consider reading...
How do I set up my computing	“Configuring your character set
environment to treat character sets	environment” on page 344
properly?
How do I decide which collation to use	“Understanding collations” on page
for my database?	328

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