SET NAMES (Reference)
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Specifies an active character set to use for subsequent database attachments. Available in gpre, and isql.
SET NAMES [charset | :var];
- Important: In SQL statements passed to DSQL, omit the terminating semicolon. In embedded applications written in C and C++, and in
isql, the semicolon is a terminating symbol for the statement, so it must be included.
| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
|
<charset> |
Name of a character set that identifies the active character set for a given process; default: |
|
Host variable containing string identifying a known character set name
|
Description: SET NAMES specifies the character set to use for subsequent database attachments in an application. It enables the server to translate between the default character set for a database on the server and the character set used by an application on the client.
SET NAMES must appear before the SET DATABASE and CONNECT statements are affected.
- Tip: Use a host-language variable with SET NAMES in an embedded application to specify a character set interactively.
For a complete list of character sets recognized by InterBase, see Character Sets and Collation Orders. Choice of character sets limits possible collation orders to a subset of all available collation orders. Given a specific character set, a specific collation order can be specified when data is selected, inserted, or updated in a column.
- Important: If you do not specify a default character set, the character set defaults to
NONE. Using character setNONEmeans that there is no character set assumption for columns; data is stored and retrieved just as you originally entered it. You can load any character set into a column defined withNONE, but you cannot load that same data into another column that has been defined with a different character set. No transliteration is performed between the source and destination character sets, so in most cases, errors occur during assignment.
Example: The following statements demonstrate the use of SET NAMES in an embedded SQL application:
EXEC SQL
SET NAMES ISO8859_1;
EXEC SQL
SET DATABASE DB1 = 'employee.ib';
EXEC SQL
CONNECT;
The next statements demonstrate the use of SET NAMES in isql:
SET NAMES LATIN1;
CONNECT 'employee.ib';