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Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
GLS User's Guide
The Informix® GLS User's Guide describes the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in Informix products.
GLS fundamentals
The Global Language Support (GLS) feature lets Informix® products handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets for Asian, African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
A GLS locale
In a client/server environment, both the database server and the client application must know which language the data is in to be able to process the application data correctly.

Client APIs and tools
You can use the HCL Informix® implementation of client APIs to develop applications for Informix database servers.
- Change Data Capture API Programmer's Guide
  The Informix® Change Data Capture API Programmer's Guide describes how to program applications to process changed data from HCL Informix databases using the Informix Change Data Capture API.
- Embedded SQLJ for HCL Informix®
  The Informix® Embedded SQLJ User's Guide contains information about using Informix Embedded SQLJ.
- ESQL/C Guide
  The Informix® ESQL/C Programmer's Manual explains how to use Informix ESQL/C, the Informix implementation of Embedded Structured Query Language (SQL) for C (ESQL/C), to create client applications with database-management capabilities.
- GLS User's Guide
  The Informix® GLS User's Guide describes the Global Language Support (GLS) feature available in Informix products.
  - GLS fundamentals
    The Global Language Support (GLS) feature lets Informix® products handle different languages, cultural conventions, and code sets for Asian, African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries.
    - Character-representation conventions
      The examples in this documentation use ASCII characters to represent both single-byte and multibyte characters. Multibyte characters are usually ideographic (such as Chinese characters). Multibyte and single-byte characters are represented abstractly.
    - The GLS feature
      In a database application, some of the tasks that the database server and the client application perform depend on the language and culture conventions of the data that they handle.
    - A GLS locale
      In a client/server environment, both the database server and the client application must know which language the data is in to be able to process the application data correctly.
      - Code sets for character data
        A character set is one or more natural-language alphabets together with additional symbols for digits, punctuation, and diacritical marks. Each character set has at least one code set, which maps its characters to unique bit patterns. These bit patterns are called code points.
      - Character classes of the code set
      - Collation order for character data
        Collation is the process of sorting character strings according to some order. The database server or the client application can perform collation.
      - Display formats
        The display format (sometimes referred to as an end-user format) is the format in which data is displayed, and it differs from the internal format that is used to store the data in the database.
    - Set a GLS locale
      For the database server and the client application to communicate successfully, you must establish the appropriate GLS locales for your environment.
    - GLS locales with HCL Informix® products
      HCL Informix® products use GLS locales for several tasks.
    - Customize display formats
      You can override some display formats in the client locale.
  - GLS environment variables
    HCL Informix® products establish the client, database, and server locales with information from GLS-related environment variables and from data that is stored in the database.
  - SQL features
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects the Informix® implementation of SQL.
  - Database server features
    These topics describe how the GLS feature affects the database server.
  - General SQL API features (ESQL/C)
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects applications that you develop with the Informix® Client Software Development Kit.
  - Informix® ESQL/C features
    These topics explain how the GLS feature affects Informix® ESQL/C, an SQL application programming interface (API).
  - Appendix
    This section contains additional reference information.
- API
  The Informix® GLS API Programmer's Guide describes the global language support (GLS) application programming interface (API) available in Informix ESQL/C and HCL Informix DataBlade® modules.
- Informix® Object Interface for C++ Guide
  The Informix® Object Interface for C++ Programmer's Guide describes how to develop HCL Informix client applications by using the object-oriented C++ programming language.
- Informix® ODBC Driver Guide
  The Informix® ODBC Driver Programmer's Manual serves as a user guide and reference for Informix ODBC Driver, which is the Informix implementation of the Microsoft™ Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) interface, Version 3.0.
- .NET provider options
  The Data Server Provider for .NET DB2® provider option is the preferred Informix® provider for developing new applications.
- Informix® JDBC Driver Guide
  The Informix® JDBC Driver Programmer's Guide describes how to install, load, and use Informix JDBC Driver to connect to the Informix database from within a Java™ application or applet.
- Informix International Language Supplement (ILS) User Guide
  These topics include information about the translated user interface files for Informix® UNIX™ products, locales, and code set conversion tables
- Informix® OLE DB Provider Guide
  The Informix® OLE DB Provider Programmer's Guide describes the software requirements for using Informix OLE DB Provider, show how to install and configure the provider for your use, and explain how to use Informix OLE DB Provider to enable client applications, such as ActiveX Data Object (ADO) applications and web pages, to access data on the Informix server.

A GLS locale

In a client/server environment, both the database server and the client application must know which language the data is in to be able to process the application data correctly.

A GLS locale is a set of Informix® files that bring together the information about data that is specific to a given culture, language, or territory. In particular, a GLS locale can specify the following:

The name of the code set that the application data uses
The classification of the characters in the code set
The collation (sorting) sequence to use for character data
The user format for monetary, numeric, date, and time data

HCL Informix® products use the following GLS files to obtain locale-related information. For more information, see Manage GLS files.


Type of GLS file	Description
GLS locale files	Specify language, territory, writing direction, and other cultural conventions.
Code-set files	Specify how to map each logical character in a character set to a unique bit pattern.
Code-set-conversion files	Specify how to map each character in a source code set to corresponding characters in a target code set.
The registry file	Associates code-set names and aliases with code-set numbers that specify file names of locale files and code-set conversion files.

Each database is limited to a single locale, but different databases of the same database server can support different locales.

A single database can store character data from two or more languages that require different character sets by using the open source International Components for Unicode (ICU) implementation of the Unicode code set (UTF-8). This code set is available in GLS database server locales for many languages and territories. (Locales for some client-side systems also support the ICU code set UTF-8 and the ICU code sets UTF-16 and UTF-32.)

The SET COLLATION statement of Informix® supports more than one localized collating order to sort NCHAR and NVARCHAR character strings.