--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "peter_jacobi.rm"
<peter_jacobi@g...> wrote:

> --- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "zifnabbe" wrote:
> > Is there a big difference between ASCII and ISO8859_1 character

set?

>
> The purpose of an ASCII column, is to prohibit funny
> 'internatial' charcters to sneak into your data. As long,
> as all charcter data are really ASCII (<=0x7F), automatic
> conversion between charcter sets (which is trivial in this
> case) does occur and you don't need to cast or use introducers.
>
> This feature is plagued by two limitations.
>
> a) It is not enforced with the same rigidiy as the relational
> integrity is enforced. You can get non ASCII chars into the table
> using valid SQL DML.
>
> b) For FB, ASCII does include all control characters. But if
> you want to have some restrictions on character repertoire for
> a column, most likely you don't want control characters.

Okay, this is the reason why I used an ASCII column. But since the
default set is ISO8859_1 I should use CAST for the ASCII column to
insert/edit records, correct? (ie this is what I think I learned
correclty from the previous messages)

Thanks.

> Regards,
> Peter Jacobi