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Unicode provides a method of encoding national characters and symbols using
more than the 8 bit character sets originally supported by ODBC, which limited
character data to a maximum of 256 different characters.

Although many systems exist to extend this limit via translator libraries and
through the use of "Code Pages", none of these are sufficient for character
sets with more than 256 individual symbols or for applications needing to
access different sets of national characters concurrently. There are various
methods of doing this and ODBC and InterBase use two slightly different forms.

ODBC has provided "Wide" data types for some time, but until ODBC 3.51 there
was no consistent Unicode interface. A Unicode ODBC driver enables all string
input and output to be presented in Unicode, so not only can data be returned
from a database in Unicode, but SQL queries may also be executed in Unicode.

Whilst the ODBC version of Unicode provides for 16 bits per symbol, InterBase
uses a more advanced encoding method called UTF8, where the length of
individual symbols may vary from 8 to 32 bits. Typically a InterBase database
will be created using a extended character set, UNICODE_FSS being the full
Unicode set.

The Easysoft InterBase driver transparently converts between these two forms,
enabling Unicode ready applications (such as Microsoft Access) to display and
modify Unicode data in InterBase databases. It can be said to be a Unicode ODBC
driver.

Applies To

• Products
  • Easysoft ODBC-InterBase Driver