#18169 [Com]: Driver cannot deliver UCS-2 unicode to SQL Server

From: Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 10:07:35 +0000
Subject: #18169 [Com]: Driver cannot deliver UCS-2 unicode to SQL Server
References: 1  Groups: php.bugs 
Request: Send a blank email to php-bugs+get-58170@lists.php.net to get a copy of this message
 ID:               18169
 Comment by:       samlinxp at msn dot com
 Reported By:      joesterg at hotmail dot com
 Status:           No Feedback
 Bug Type:         MSSQL related
 Operating System: Windows 2000 Server
 PHP Version:      4.1.2
 New Comment:

I have the same problem.

My setup is: 
Windows XP Server, with Apache 2.0.47/PHP 4.3.6RC3 and Microsoft SQL
Server 2000

Hope this problem can be solved soon. This is quite important
especially at Asia Pacific's regions (CHN, HK, TW, JP, KR.. etc)


Previous Comments:
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2003-06-29 21:33:00] iliaa@php.net

Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php4-STABLE-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:
 
  http://snaps.php.net/win32/php4-win32-STABLE-latest.zip



------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2002-12-18 18:18:47] fvu at wanadoo dot nl

If you're using PHP on a Windows platform you can use the PHP COM
extension to communicate with SQL Server via ADO.  The PHP COM
extension is capable of translating UTF-8 to UCS-2 and back if you
specify so as the third parameter:

  $oDb = new COM('ADODB.Connection', NULL, CP_UTF8);

This way you can use Unicode UTF-8 within PHP and Unicode UCS-2 within
SQL Server with all the translations done for you automatically.

HTH, Freddy Vulto

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2002-07-06 07:08:48] joesterg at hotmail dot com

Thanks Marko

-I guess this means that if you are to use binary (ie. unicode) data,
then COM/ADO is your only option, if SQL Server is the database of your
choice.

From yohgaki's answer, I guess also the multibyte encoding
functionality lacks proper Unicode support -am I correct in assuming
that we will have to move to PHP4.2.x and do our own encoding/decoding
through the Win32 API then?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2002-07-05 05:34:22] markonen@php.net

PHP's mssql extension uses the Microsoft SQL Server's C 
API, the "DB-Library for C". Specifically, SQL queries are 
sent to the server using the dbcmd() function. This 
function is not binary safe, so inserting UCS2 text or 
images or any binary data is likely to fail.

The DB-Library for C has separate, binary-safe APIs for 
entering text and images, but they are complicated and 
difficult to seamlessly integrate to the current mssql 
extension. Look up the documentation for dbwritetext() if 
you feel like implementing this change.

UTF-8 and UTF-7 are, IIRC, the only Unicode encoding that 
are guaranteed not to include null characters. They are, 
therefore, the only encodings that can be reliably used 
with PHP's mssql extension at this time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

[2002-07-05 04:21:52] joesterg at hotmail dot com

You are probably right. However, Unicode is central to making
world-wide web applications, and all major database vendors have this
posibility.
I find it to be a hindrance to wider deployment of large-scale,
worldwide php applications.

Does anyone know if it is only the MSSQL module? -are there any plans
to look into this issue?

What are the future directions for PHP and Unicode support?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

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