Helen

While reading and re-reading your beautifully detailed reply, one query
crossed my mind

[snip]

> Oh, why did I comment out the character set declarations? Normally, you

define the character set and collation order (if you need to) when you
create the database...then all text columns will use those unless they are
declared differently.

[end snip]

is it the case that character set *and* collation order can be defined with
the database? I've been working on the assumption that only the character
set can be specified in the database definition, and that collation order
has to be defined with the columns (or domains)?

Thanks, Andy.