InterBase character sets and collation orders

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InterBase® character sets and collation orders

Character setCharset IDMax. char sizeMin. char sizeCollation orders
ASCII21 byte1 byteASCII
BIG_5562 bytes1 byteBIG_5
CYRL501 byte1 byteCYRL
DB_RUS
PDOX_CYRL
DOS437101 byte1 byteDOS437
DB_DEU437
DB_ESP437
DB_FIN437
DB_FRA437
DB_ITA437
DB_NLD437
DB_SVE437
DB_UK437
DB_US437
PDOX_ASCII
PDOX_INTL
PDOX_SWEDFIN
DOS850111 byte1 byteDOS850
DB_DEU850
DB_ESP850
DB_FRA850
DB_FRC850
DB_ITA850
DB_NLD850
DB_PTB850
DB_SVE850
DB_UK850
DB_US850
DOS852451 byte1 byteDOS852
DB_CSY
DB_PLK
DB_SLO
PDOX_CSY
PDOX_HUN
PDOX_PLK
PDOX_SLO
DOS857461 byte1 byteDOS857
DB_TRK
DOS860131 byte1 byteDOS860
DB_PTG860
DOS861471 byte1 byteDOS861
PDOX_ISL
DOS863141 byte1 byteDOS863
DB_FRC863
DOS865121 byte1 byteDOS865
DB_DAN865
DB_NOR865
PDOX_NORDAN4
EUCJ_020862 bytes1 byteEUJC_0208
GB_2312572 bytes1 byteGB_2312
ISO8859_1211 byte1 byteISO8859_1
CC_ESPLAT1
CC_PTBRLAT1
DA_DA
DE_DE
DU_NL
EN_UK
EN_US
ES_ES
FI_FI
FR_CA
FR_FR
IS_IS
IT_IT
NO_NO
PT_PT
SV_SV
ISO8859_2221 byte1 byteISO8859_2
CS_CZ
PL_PL
ISO8859_15391 byte1 byteISO8859_15
DA_DA9
DE_DE9
DU_NL9
EN_UK9
EN_US9
ES_ES9
FI_FI9
FR_CA9
FR_FR9
IS_IS9
IT_IT9
NO_NO9
PT_PT9
SV_SV9
KO18R581 byte1 byteRU_RU
KSC_5601442 bytes1 byteKSC_5601
KSC_DICTIONARY
NEXT191 byte1 byteNEXT
NXT_DEU
NXT_FRA
NXT_ITA
NXT_US
NONE01 byte1 byteNONE
OCTETS11 byte1 byteOCTETS
SJIS_020852 bytes1 byteSJIS_0208
UNICODE_BE
UCS2BE
82 bytes2 bytesN/A at this time
UNICODE_FSS33 bytes1 byteUNICODE_FSS
UNICODE_LE
UCS2LE
642 byte2 bytesN/A
UTF_8591 byte4 bytesN/A at this time
WIN1250511 byte1 byteWIN1250
PXW_CSY
PXW_HUNDC
PXW_PLK
PXW_SLO
WIN1251521 byte1 byteWIN1251
PXW_CYRL
WIN1252531 byte1 byteWIN1252
PXW_INTL
PXW_INTL850
PXW_NORDAN4
PXW_SPAN
PXW_SWEDFIN
WIN1253541 byte1 byteWIN1253
PXW_GREEK
WIN1254551 byte1 byteWIN1254
PXW_TURK

Support for Paradox and dBASE

Many character sets and their corresponding collations are provided to support Paradox for DOS, Paradox for Windows, dBASE for DOS, and dBASE for Windows.

Character Sets for DOS

The following character sets correspond to MS-DOS code pages, and should be used to specify character sets for InterBase® databases that are accessed by Paradox for DOS and dBASE for DOS:

Character sets corresponding to DOS code pages

Character setDOS code page
DOS437437
DOS850850
DOS852852
DOS857857
DOS860860
DOS861861
DOS863863
DOS865865

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to Paradox begin "PDOX". For example, the DOS865 character set for DOS code page 865 supports a Paradox collation order for Norwegian and Danish called "PDOX_NORDAN4".

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to dBASE begin "DB". For example, the DOS437 character set for DOS code page 437 supports a dBASE collation order for Spanish called "DB_ESP437".

For more information about DOS code pages, and Paradox and dBASE collation orders, see the appropriate Paradox and dBASE documentation and driver books.

Character sets for Microsoft Windows

There are five character sets that support Windows client applications, such as Paradox for Windows. These character sets are WIN1250, WIN1251, WIN1252, WIN1253, and WIN1254.

The names of collation orders for these character sets that are specific to Paradox for Windows begin "PXW". For example, the WIN1252 character set supports a Paradox for Windows collation order for Norwegian and Danish called "PXW_NORDAN4".

For more information about Windows character sets and Paradox for Windows collation orders, see the appropriate Paradox for Windows documentation and driver books.

Additional character sets and collations

Support for additional character sets and collation orders is constantly being added to InterBase®. To see if additional character sets and collations are available for a newly created database, connect to the database with isql, then use the following set of queries to generate a list of available character sets and collations:

 SELECT RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME, RDB$CHARACTER_SET_ID
   FROM RDB$CHARACTER_SETS
   ORDER BY RDB$CHARACTER_SET_NAME;

 SELECT RDB$COLLATION_NAME, RDB$CHARACTER_SET_ID
   FROM RDB$COLLATIONS
   ORDER BY RDB$COLLATION_NAME;

Source: InterBase® 2009 Language Reference Guide
Last updated 2010-02-23
See also:
Default character set
Character set
Character sets and Unicode in Firebird
Convert your Firebird applications to Unicode
Overview of the main character sets in Firebird
New character sets in Firebird 2.5
New character sets in Firebird 2.1
New character sets in Firebird 2.0

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<< Overview of the main character sets in Firebird | Documentation | Glossary >>

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