Working with Unicode Data

The topics in this section explain the Unicode character data types in SQL Server and how to use them in all aspects of database design and programming.

In This Section

Topic

Description

Unicode Basics

Explains the reasons for using Unicode and also the storage and performance trade-offs involved.

Programming Database Applications with Unicode

Explains measures that are required to preserve the integrity of character data when programming applications in client/server environments that vary in their Unicode-awareness.

Using Unicode with bcp and OPEN ROWSET

Explains how to use Unicode to preserve the integrity of character data when you copy, import, and export data by using the bcp utility and the OPENROWSET function.

Using Unicode with XML Data

Explains the benefits of preserving XML data in the UTF-8 encoding scheme and how to force conversion to other encoding schemes.