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doyin
Starting Member
2 Posts |
 Posted - 2006-10-03 : 18:23:39
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| i have a database that is running using regular ascii characters.. i am trying to migrate this database to support several other languges(globalization). I need ideas on how to migrate this database to UTF 8 . Someone suggested converting all the varchar and char to nvarchar and nchar .. but i have a lot of data on the system and this might take a lot of time.. Any ideas would be appreciated !!!! |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2006-10-04 : 02:12:01
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Basically you need to:Create TEMP_MyTablewith all varchar / text changes to nvarchar / ntextINSERT INTO TEMP_MyTable SELECT * FROM MyTableDROP MyTablesp_rename 'TEMP_MyTable', 'MyTable'You will also need to deal with constraints, FKs, la-di-dah-di-dah ...The easiest way I know of is to make the changes in Enterprise Manager's Design Table and then use the "Generate Change Script" icon to create the script, and then abandon the changes in E.M.Note that (SQL2000) the maximum size for Nvarchar is 4,000 - whereas Varchar is 8,000 - that might give you some problems!You probably don't need to change ALL your varchar columns - and each one that you do will result in a double of disk storage for that column of course  Also note that normal Varchar can hold quite a lot of foreign character accents - not Chinese but most of the Roman alphabet languagesKristenKristen |
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doyin
Starting Member
2 Posts |
Posted - 2006-10-05 : 10:16:09
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thanks for the response.. am taking a look at that approachquote:
Originally posted by Kristen
Basically you need to:Create TEMP_MyTablewith all varchar / text changes to nvarchar / ntextINSERT INTO TEMP_MyTable SELECT * FROM MyTableDROP MyTablesp_rename 'TEMP_MyTable', 'MyTable'You will also need to deal with constraints, FKs, la-di-dah-di-dah ...The easiest way I know of is to make the changes in Enterprise Manager's Design Table and then use the "Generate Change Script" icon to create the script, and then abandon the changes in E.M.Note that (SQL2000) the maximum size for Nvarchar is 4,000 - whereas Varchar is 8,000 - that might give you some problems!You probably don't need to change ALL your varchar columns - and each one that you do will result in a double of disk storage for that column of course Also note that normal Varchar can hold quite a lot of foreign character accents - not Chinese but most of the Roman alphabet languagesKristenKristen
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converting existing database(ASCII) to unicode