At Runtime

While no data exchange with the database is performed, the application runs in Unicode. At runtime, the data sent by the application to the database client are converted once more from Unicode to the corresponding locale encoding. The conversion happens in accordance with the following rules:

• If the CLIENT_LOCALE environment variable is set, its value is treated as the target locale into which the data are converted.
• If the CLIENT_LOCALE variable is not set, the default system locale encoding will be used.

After the program is converted, it communicates with the database driver using the database client encoding. The database driver defines whether the database client encoding differs from the database locale and if it does, performs the conversion, if possible.

The database locale is defined using the DB_LOCALE environment variable. The database driver sends the following values to the database from the client locale:

• CLIENT_LOCALE value. If it is not set - the value of the default system locale is sent instead.
• DB_LOCALE set on the client side. If it is not set on the client side, it is not sent, no values will be sent and the DB_LOCALE set on the server side will be used instead.
• Customized formats: DBDATE, DBTIME, DBMONEY, DBFORMAT. If they are not set, no values will be sent.

The above listed values are used to verify the database locale and check whether the client and database locale coincide. If the client locale differs from the database locale, the locales must be compatible, otherwise a conversion error will occur. Querix tools do not perform the conversion and cannot influence the database locale, so you must make sure that the conversion between the client locale and database locale is possible. For more information refer to the Informix database documentation.