"Iain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I read the info written by Tasuo, but I have to admit that the whole > encoding thing is still full of mystery for me. For example, if the database > has a SQL_ASCII encoding and you enter japanese text, what encoding is used? > Does it depend on the client used to enter it?
I'm not an expert on this stuff, but my understanding is that setting the encoding to SQL_ASCII disables all encoding-conversion logic --- whatever bytes the client sends are what get stored. So if you want to change the setting from SQL_ASCII to something else, you'd better be sure that everything every client has stored is compatible with the new encoding specification. > My understanding is that the DB > doesn't ensure that data makes sense in the set encoding, When you select a real encoding spec (not SQL_ASCII) then the DB does check that entered strings are valid in that encoding. Also it will attempt to do encoding conversion, if clients specify they are using a client_encoding that is different from the database encoding (and is not SQL_ASCII). Hope that helps --- if not, try Tatsuo ... regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match