Progress
Internationalization Guide


User-defined Characters

Progress supports user-defined characters, such as the Japanese Gaiji (external) characters of the SHIFT–JIS code page. The lead bytes of these characters are distinguished by having values in the range 240 through 252. The trail bytes of these characters have values in the same range as any SHIFT–JIS trail byte—namely, 64 through 126 and 128 through 252.

Limitations Of User-defined Characters

Precisely because these characters are user defined, administrators must consider carefully whether to include them in a database. If user-defined characters occur in a database, all systems that access the database must define them consistently. Also, there are no standard algorithms for converting user-defined characters from one code page to another. For example, Progress cannot convert user-defined characters from SHIFT-JIS to EUCJIS, since a user-defined character appearing in multiple code pages does not necessarily occupy the corresponding position in each code page.

NOTE: You cannot use strings containing user-defined characters with the CODEPAGE-CONVERT() function. Instead, use the REPLACE() function.

Guidelines For Using User-defined Characters

CAUTION: If a Progress application has a tier (client, server, etc.) built earlier than Version 9.0B or 9.1A, you must alter the lead-byte table to include the lead-bytes of the Gaiji characters.

When you use user-defined characters, do not forget to:


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