ADABAS supports the usage of national special characters (such as the German umlauts) in the database.
All ASCII data are internally stored according to ISO 8859/1.2.The corresponding code table can be found in Appendix B - Character Set ISO 8859/1.2.
The following is true for the input, output, and sort of national special characters:
- No adaptations have to be made for a terminal using the code ISO 8859/1.2. Nevertheless, if special characters are not represented, see Section Representability of National Special Characters.
- For a terminal using a code other than the ISO 8859/1.2 code, a terminal-specific table for the mapping of codes can be defined (see Section Mapping National Special Characters ).
- If a terminal is not capable of representing national special characters, a language-specific table for the mapping of codes can be defined in order to be able to output national special characters in an alternative notation (see Section Representability of National Special Characters).
- In the ADABAS database, characters or character strings are sorted according to the code ISO 8859/1.2; i.e., if national special characters in a sorted output are to be ordered in a way different from this code, then a language-specific table for the mapping of codes must be defined for this purpose (see Section Sorting National Special Characters).
To know which code is used by a terminal, read the pertinent system description.