Options - Unicode Options

Enable Unicode Features

Specifies whether Unicode support in AQT is enabled. This is discussed in more detail in Unicode Support.

By default, Unicode support is enabled. If you do not use Unicode in your databases it is recommended that you switch this option off - there is increased processing overhead when Unicode support is enabled. You should also switch this of if you are having problems accessing your database; it could be that your database doesn't support the unicode-enabled interface used by AQT when this option is selected.

Support Unicode characters in Table and Column Names

Specifies whether AQT is to display Unicode characters in table and column names. By default, this option is not selected; you should select this if your table or column names contain Unicode characters.

When this option is selected:

• AQT retrieves table and column information in Unicode format
• in the Run SQL window, we use a different list-box for displaying the column names. This list box doesn't allow you to select multiple columns.

AQT has only limited support of Unicode characters in the Schema name. The treeview component used for displaying the object-tree in the database explorer doesn't display Unicode characters.

Font used for textboxes, listboxes and other Unicode controls

To display your Unicode data you may need to use a special font (depending on what character-set you are displaying). This option allows you to set the font used for the text-boxes, list-boxes, combo-boxes and other controls used throughout AQT.

The default font used by AQT is "MS Sans Serif", 8pt. If you do not have a specialised font, you can use "Courier New" which displays a wider range of unicode characters than "MS Sans Serif".

This option does not set the font used for:

• Display Grids. This is set in Edit > Set Font from the Data Display window
• SQL Editor. This is done with Options > Syntax Highlighting
• Database Explorer. This is done in Options > Table Information.

Workarounds

The remainder of the options relate to the use of unicode strings in SQL statements. Many database have limitations in how these are used. We have developed a set of workarounds that enable unicode strings to be used within AQT for these databases.

For Oracle, use UNISTR for Unicode strings

This option is discussed in Unicode Support for Oracle. When this option is checked, AQT will scan all SQL being run against an Oracle database. If it finds some unicode characters, it will replace the Unicode characters wuth UNISTR function calls.

The UNISTR function is not available in Oracle v8, so you should not set this option if you are running Oracle v8.

For SQLServer, ensure Unicode strings are in N'xxx' format

This option is discussed in Unicode Support for SQL Server. When this option is checked, AQT will scan all SQL being run against a SQL Server database. If it finds some unicode characters, it will ensure that the strings are preceded with an N (for example N'ald').

For Sybase, use TO_UNICHAR for Unicode strings

This option is specified in Unicode Support for Sybase. When this option is checked, AQT will scan all SQL being run against a Sybase database. If it finds some unicode characters, it will replace the Unicode characters with to_unichar function calls.

For Sybase Anywhere, replace Unicode strings with parameters.

This option is specified in Unicode Support for Sybase Anywhere. When this option is checked, AQT will scan all SQL being run against a Sybase Anywhere database. If it finds some unicode characters, it will replace them with a parameter marker, and pass the unicode string in the parameter.