The NCHAR / NVARCHAR data types

IBM^® Informix^® supports the standard NCHAR and NVARCHAR data types. These types are equivalent to CHAR and VARCHAR (the same character set is used), except that the collation order is locale specific with NCHAR/NVARCHAR types.

With Genero BDL, you can handle character strings of NCHAR/NVARCHAR database columns by using program variables defined with the CHAR/VARCHAR types. Since the character set is identical for NCHAR/NVARCHAR and CHAR/VARCHAR, not specific consideration needs to be given for the "N" character types.

When extracting a database schema with fgldbsch, NCHAR/NVARCHAR types will be identified in the .sch file by the native Informix type codes 15 and 16. When compiling .4gl or .per sources referencing NCHAR/NVARCHAR columns in the schema file, the compilers will automatically use the CHAR and VARCHAR Genero BDL types for the type codes 15 and 16.

However, Genero BDL is missing full support of NCHAR and NVARCHAR types as it is not possible to declare program variables directly with the NCHAR / NVARCHAR keywords. Further, sorting features of Genero should follow the same collation order as the IBM Informix database when using "N" character types.

Enhancement reference: 20004