I have many of my database columns defined as VARCHAR(255) and now would like to input unicode characters (especially the € sign).
Inserting data doesn´t show the unicode symbols, but if I update my insert statement to use NVARCHAR paramerts it is working. But why? I didn´t change the column definition from VARCHAR to NVARCHAR.
To support these symbols should I just change all paramerts from VARCHAR to NVARCHAR or should I also update the columns definition to NVARCHAR(255)?
Varchar datatype doesn't hold Unicode character. You must convert VARCHAR(255)data type to NVARCHAR(255) inorder to hold Unicode character.
Also update the columns definition to NVARCHAR(255)
use NVARCHAR or change your database character set (export, reinstall with a character set that supports the euro sign like WE8ISO8859P15 or AL32UTF8, and import).
Here's an example of NVARCHAR:
link
Related
Due to this I have a table full of varchar values (e.g., 戦艦å¸å›½) that I need to convert to proper unicode nvarchar values (e.g.,戦艦帝国). How can I do that within T-SQL?
I got a little surprised as I was able to store an Ukrainian string in a varchar column .
My table is:
create table delete_collation
(
text1 varchar(100) collate SQL_Ukrainian_CP1251_CI_AS
)
and using this query I am able to insert:
insert into delete_collation
values(N'використовується для вирішення квитки')
but when I am removing 'N' it is showing ?????? in the select statement.
Is it okay or am I missing something in understanding unicode and non-unicode with collate?
From MSDN:
Prefix Unicode character string constants with the letter N. Without
the N prefix, the string is converted to the default code page of the
database. This default code page may not recognize certain characters.
UPDATE:
Please see a similar questions::
What is the meaning of the prefix N in T-SQL statements?
Cyrillic symbols in SQL code are not correctly after insert
sql server 2012 express do not understand Russian letters
To expand on MegaTron's answer:
Using collate SQL_Ukrainian_CP1251_CI_AS, SQL server is able to store ukrainian characters in a varchar column by using CodePage 1251.
However, when you specify a string without the N prefix, that string will be converted to the default non-unicode codepage before it is sent to the database, and that is why you see ??????.
So it is completely fine to use varchar and collate as you do, but you must always include the N prefix when sending strings to the database, to avoid the intermediate conversion to default (non-ukrainian) codepage.
Below is my code sample.
DECLARE #a TABLE (a VARCHAR(20));
INSERT #a
(a)
VALUES ('中');
SELECT *
FROM #a;
I'm using SQL Server Management Studio to run it. My question is, why I can insert non-ascii characters into VARCHAR column and correctly get it back? As I understand, VARCHAR type is only for ascii characters and the NVARCHAR is for unicode characters. Anyone can help to explain it please? I'm on Windows 7 with SQL Server 2014 developer edition.
The codepage used to store the varchar data varies by DB collation.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189617.aspx
Varchar is 8 bits, so you may have a different collation, or you may have gotten lucky on where your character falls on the code set
You can find the ASCII and Extended ASCII characters below.
ASCII
Extended ASCII
I don't believe '中' is an ASCII character.
www.asciitable.com
I have table with two varchar columns first_name and last_name.
Now I need to convert these columns to nvarchar in order to support UTF-8.
I choose nvarchar datatype in SSMS for these columns and when I try to enter some UTF-8 data, my symbols converts to question marks. For example, if I input йцукен (Ukrainian) it will be converted to ??????.
What is the problem and how to fix it?
Thanks.
When you want to insert nvarchar literals into the database table, you must use the N'..' prefix.
So use
INSERT INTO dbo.YourTable(First_Name)
VALUES(N'йцукен')
so that this string will be treated as a unicode string
If you're not using the N'..' notation, you're really inserting a non-unicode string literal - and this will cause these conversions to ?
I need to insert chinese characters in my database but it always show ???? ..
Example:
Insert this record.
微波室外单元-Apple
Then it became ???
Result:
??????-Apple
I really Need Help...thanks in regard.
I am using MSSQL Server 2008
Make sure you specify a unicode string with a capital N when you insert like:
INSERT INTO Table1 (Col1) SELECT N'微波室外单元-Apple' AS [Col1]
and that Table1 (Col1) is an NVARCHAR data type.
Make sure the column you're inserting to is nchar, nvarchar, or ntext. If you insert a Unicode string into an ANSI column, you really will get question marks in the data.
Also, be careful to check that when you pull the data back out you're not just seeing a client display problem but are actually getting the question marks back:
SELECT Unicode(YourColumn), YourColumn FROM YourTable
Note that the Unicode function returns the code of only the first character in the string.
Once you've determined whether the column is really storing the data correctly, post back and we'll help you more.
Try adding the appropriate languages to your Windows locale setings. you'll have to make sure your development machine is set to display Non-Unicode characters in the appropriate language.
And ofcourse u need to use NVarchar for foreign language feilds
Make sure that you have set an encoding for the database to one that supports these characters. UTF-8 is the de facto encoding as it's ASCII compatible but supports all 1114111 Unicode code points.
SELECT 'UPDATE table SET msg=UNISTR('''||ASCIISTR(msg)||''') WHERE id='''||id||''' FROM table WHERE id= '123344556' ;