Global Language Support

HCL Informix® products can support many languages, cultures, and code sets. Global Language Support (GLS) provides support for all language- and culture-specific information.

The following table describes how to set the GLS options depending on your platform.
Platform How to set GLS options
UNIX™ Specify the GLS options in the odbc.ini file.
Windows™ Specify the GLS options in the Informix® ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog box.
The following table describes the GLS options for Informix® ODBC Driver.
GLS option Description
Client locale
Description:
Locale and code set that the application runs in
Format:
locale.codeset@modifier
odbc.ini field for UNIX™:
CLIENT_LOCALE
Default value for UNIX™:
en_us.8859-1
Default value for Windows™:
en_us.1252
Important: The setting of the CLIENT_LOCALE environment variable in the operating system environment and in Setnet32 are ignored by Informix® ODBC Driver. To change the client locale, you must use this GLS option.
Database locale
Description:
Locale and code set that the database was created in
Format:
locale.codeset@modifier
odbc.ini field for UNIX™:
DB_LOCALE
Default value for UNIX™:
en_us.8859-1
Default value for Windows™:
en_us.1252
Important: The setting of the DB_LOCALE environment variable in the operating system environment and in Setnet32 are ignored by Informix® ODBC Driver. To change the database locale, you must use this GLS option.
Translation library
Description:
Performs the code set conversion
Format:
Path to the file for the library. The translation DLL must follow the ODBC standard for translation libraries. For more information, see the Informix® ODBC Driver Programmer's Manual.
odbc.ini field for UNIX™:
TRANSLATIONDLL
Default value for UNIX™:
$INFORMIXDIR/lib/esql/igo4a304.xx where xx is platform-specific extension for shared library
Default value for Windows™:
igo4n304.dll
Translation option
Description:
Option for a non-Informix® translation library
Format:
Determined by the vendor
odbc.ini field for UNIX™:
TRANSLATION_OPTION
Default value for Windows™:
Determined by the vendor
Restriction: Do not set this option for the HCL Informix® translation library. The HCL Informix® translation library determines the translation option based on the client locale and database locale values.
VMB character
Description:
Varying multibyte character length reporting option that specifies how to set pcbValue when rgbValue (the output area) is not large enough for the code-set-converted data. The possible values are:
Estimate
Informix® ODBC Driver makes a worst-case estimate of the storage space needed to return the data.
Exact
Informix® ODBC Driver writes the code-set-converted data to disk until all the data is converted. Because this option can degrade performance, it is recommended that you do not use this option unless your application does not work with Estimate.

When you use a multibyte code set (in which characters vary in length from 1 to 4 bytes) for either the database or client locale, the length of a character string or simple large object (TEXT) in the database locale does not indicate the length of the string after it is converted to the client locale.

Possible values for UNIX™:
0 = Estimate
1 = Exact
Possible values for Windows™:
Estimate
Exact
odbc.ini field for UNIX™:
VMBCHARLENEXACT
Default value for UNIX™:
Estimate
Default value for Windows™:
Estimate

For more information about GLS and locales, see the Informix® GLS User's Guide.