Re: Can I change the character encoding for a DB?

Hi Tom,

Thanks for that. It's somewhat clearer now.

I went ahead and rebuilt the DB with no problems so I guess that whatever
data was in the DB converted OK.

Regards
Iain

> "Iain" <iain@mst.co.jp> writes:
> > I read the info written by Tasuo, but I have to admit that the whole
> > encoding thing is still full of mystery for me. For example, if the
database
> > has a SQL_ASCII encoding and you enter japanese text, what encoding is
used?
> > Does it depend on the client used to enter it?
>
> I'm not an expert on this stuff, but my understanding is that setting
> the encoding to SQL_ASCII disables all encoding-conversion logic ---
> whatever bytes the client sends are what get stored.  So if you want
> to change the setting from SQL_ASCII to something else, you'd better be
> sure that everything every client has stored is compatible with the new
> encoding specification.
>
> > My understanding is that the DB
> > doesn't ensure that data makes sense in the set encoding,
>
> When you select a real encoding spec (not SQL_ASCII) then the DB does
> check that entered strings are valid in that encoding.  Also it will
> attempt to do encoding conversion, if clients specify they are using
> a client_encoding that is different from the database encoding (and
> is not SQL_ASCII).
>
> Hope that helps --- if not, try Tatsuo ...
>
> regards, tom lane