Thread: What is the difference between --enable-multibyte and --enable-unicode-conversion?

Hi,

My database is configured with --enable-multibyte.  I thought this is
what I needed to be able to store Chinese Characters.  Is this a correct
assumption?  Anyhow, when I tried to write to the database with Chinese
content, the content becomes jibberish.  Do I need to enable unicode
conversion?  If that's the case, can I just run configure with
--enable-unicode-conversion on my current database without any side
effect on my data?

Thanks
-Jeff

Jeff Lu wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My database is configured with --enable-multibyte.  I thought this is
> what I needed to be able to store Chinese Characters.  Is this a correct
> assumption?  Anyhow, when I tried to write to the database with Chinese
> content, the content becomes jibberish.  Do I need to enable unicode
> conversion?  If that's the case, can I just run configure with
> --enable-unicode-conversion on my current database without any side
> effect on my data?
>
> Thanks
> -Jeff
>
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when > 7.2 the --enalbe-unicode-conversion is auto enabled
when specifing --enable-multibyte.
for pre 7.2, only when you want to store data in database using unicode,
do you need to --enable-unicode-conversion, if not, for example, you are
using EUC_TW or other encoding (but not unicode), I think you don't need
to enable it. but to my expreience, enable unicode is better (which is the
default case when > 7.2). because you can use unicode autoconversion
facility to extend your client encoding (such as GBK etc.)
I think the only side effect to your application is speed.

    regards    laser