Define variables for locale-sensitive data

Your program can access columns of data types NCHAR and NVARCHAR when it selects into or reads from character host variables. The following code fragment declares a char host variable, hte, and then selects NCHAR data into the hte variable:

/*
   This code fragment declares a char host variable "hte",
   which contains a non-ASCII character in the name, and
   selects NCHAR data (non-ASCII names in the "nom" column
   of the "abonns" table) into it.
*/

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
   char hte[10];
...
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;
...
EXEC SQL select nom into :hte from abonns
   where numro > 13601;

When you declare host variables for the NCHAR and NVARCHAR data types, note the relationship between the declared size of the variable and the amount of character data that it can hold, as follows:

• If your locale supports a single-byte code set, the size of the NCHAR and NVARCHAR variable determines the number of characters that it can hold.
• If your locale supports a multibyte code set, you can no longer assume a one-byte-per-character relationship.

  In this case, you must ensure that you declare the host variable large enough to accommodate the number of characters that you expect to receive from the database.