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The database server must know how to interpret the data in any columns with the locale-specific data types, NCHAR and NVARCHAR.

To handle this locale-specific data correctly, the database server must know the localized order for the collation of the data and the code set of the data. In addition, the database server uses the code set of the database locale as the code set of the server-processing locale.

The database server might have to perform code-set conversion between the code sets of the server-processing locale and the server locale. For more information, see Perform code-set conversion.

IBM® Informix® uses the precedence of steps 1, 2, and 3 in the preceding list to obtain the database information for the server-processing locale. You are not required to set the other environment variables.

For more information about how the database server obtains these environment variables, see Send the client locale.

For example, suppose that your client application has DB_LOCALE set to en_us.8859-1 (U.S. English with the ISO8859-1 code set). The client application then opens a database with the U.S. English locale (en_us.8859-1), and the database server establishes a server-processing locale withen_us.8859-1 as the locale that defines the database information.

If the client application now closes the U.S. English database and opens another database, one with the French locale (fr_fr.8859-1), the database server must reestablish the server-processing locale. The database server sets the eighth character field of the SQLWARN array to W indicate that the two locales are different. The client application, however, might choose to use this connection because both these locales support the ISO8859-1 code set. If the client application opens a database with the Japanese SJIS locale (ja_jp.sjis) instead of one with a French locale, your client application would probably not continue with this connection because the locales are too different.