Native Language Support

ALLBASE/SQL lets you manipulate databases in a wide variety of native languages in addition to the default language, known as NATIVE-3000. You can use either 8-bit or 16-bit character data, as appropriate for the language you select. In addition, you can always include ASCII data in any database, since ASCII is a subset of each supported character set. The collating sequence for sorting and comparisons is that of the native language selected.

You can use native language characters in a wide variety of places, including:

character literals
host variables for CHAR or VARCHAR data (but not variable names)
ALLBASE/SQL object names
WHERE and VALUES clauses
filenames

If your system has the proper message files installed, ALLBASE/SQL displays prompts, messages and banners in the language you select, and it displays dates and time according to local customs. In addition, ISQL accepts responses to its prompts in the native language selected. However, regardless of the native language used, the syntax of ISQL and SQL commands--including punctuation--remains in ASCII. Note that MPE/iX does not support native language file names for DBEnvironment names.

In order to use a native language other than the default, you must do the following:

Make sure your I/O devices support the character set you wish to use.
Set the MPE job control word NLUSERLANG to the number (LangNum) of the native language you wish to use. Use the following MPE/iX command:
SETJCW NLUSERLANG = LangNum
This language then becomes the current language. (If NLUSERLANG is not set, the current language is NATIVE-3000.)
use the LANG = LanguageName option of the START DBE NEW command to specify the language of a DBEnvironment when you create it.

Run the MPE/iX utility program NLUTIL.PUB.SYS to determine which native languages are supported on your system. Here is a list of supported languages, preceded by the LangNum for each:

     0 NATIVE-3000        9 ITALIAN             52 ARABICW

     1 AMERICAN          10 NORWEGIAN           61 GREEK

     2 C-FRENCH          11 PORTUGUESE          71 HEBREW

     3 DANISH            12 SPANISH             81 TURKISH

     4 DUTCH             13 SWEDISH            201 CHINESE-S

     5 ENGLISH           14 ICELANDIC          211 CHINESE-T

     6 FINNISH           41 KATAKANA           221 JAPANESE

     7 FRENCH            51 ARABIC             231 KOREAN

     8 GERMAN

Resetting NLUSERLANG while you are connected to a DBEnvironment has no effect on the current DBE session.

ISQL interacts with two files that contain messages which may vary according to the language selected:

SQLCTxxx: the ALLBASE/SQL message catalog, which contains ISQL messages and other ALLBASE/SQL error and warning messages. The format file designator for the message catalog is:
SQLCTxxx.PUB.SYS
where xxx is the numerical value for the current language. If this catalog cannot be opened, ALLBASE/SQL looks for the default NATIVE-3000 message catalog:
SQLCT000.PUB.SYS
If the default catalog cannot be opened, ALLBASE/SQL returns an error message saying that the catalog file is not available. If the NATIVE-3000 catalog is available, the user sees a warning message indicating that the default catalog is being used.
SQLWLxxx: the ALLBASE/SQL welcome file, which contains the ISQL banner. The formal file designator for the welcome file is:
SQLWLxxx.PUB.SYS
where xxx is the numerical value for the current language. If this file cannot be opened, ALLBASE/SQL looks for the default NATIVE-3000 banner file:
SQLWL000.PUB.SYS
If the default file cannot be opened, ALLBASE/SQL returns an error message saying that the banner file is not available. If the NATIVE-3000 file is available, the user sees a warning message indicating that the default file is being used.

Native Language Support

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Index