--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, David Johnson
<johnson_d@c...> wrote:

> If you display the row using isql, that _may_ tell you what you need to
> know.

Of course, isql, thanks I'll try it in the morning. Hopefully I'll
have more control over the environment... I tried using the query tool
in IBexpert but the results I was getting looked suspicious

> There are known issues with multibyte character sets in FB 1.x. When
> storing unicode in FB 1.x, I have found that it works better to set the
> character set on the column to NONE when creating the table. I tested
> by putting data into the tables using jaybird and then displaying it
> using ISQL.
>
> If you choose this approach, you will have to do your localized
> collation in the java engine, sine character set NONE allows only binary
> sort order. Binary order is great for exact searches, but limits the
> use of some of the other features of the engine like dictionary order
> collations.

Great, I didn't realise you could set the character set on the
column.... I'll look into it. But your mention of binary sort order
concerns me since we use a lot of text searches, wildcards and
sorting, so that'll have to work still.

> FB 2 is not quite ready for production, but it (allegedly) corrects the
> unicode and other multibyte character set handling in the database
> engine.

Pity... the sooner the better! We've only just become aware of this
issue and we're just starting to ship...

Thanks