Re: unicode

> Where can I read about basic tech details of Unicode / Charset
> Conversion / ...
>
> I't like to find answers to the following (for database created using
> UNICODE)
>
> 1. Where exactly are conversions between national charsets done

No "national charset" is in PostgreSQL. I assume you want to know
where frontend/backend encoding conversion happens. They are handled
by pg_server_to_client(does conversion BE to FE) and
pg_client_to_server(FE to BE). These functions are called by the
communication sub system(backend/libpq) and COPY. In summary, in most
cases the encoding conversion is done before the parser and after the
executor produces the final result.

> 2. What is converyted (whole SQL statements or just data)

Whole statement.

> 3. What format is used for processing in memory (UCS-2, UCS-4, UTF-8,
> UTF-16, UTF-32, ...)

"format"? I assume you are talking about the encoding.

It is exactly same as the database encoding. For UNICODE database, we
use UTF-8. Not UCS-2 nor UCS-4.

> 4. What format is used when saving to disk (UCS-*, UTF-*, SCSU, ...) ?

Ditto.

> 5. Are LIKE/SIMILAR aware of locale stuff ?

I don't know about SIMILAR, but I believe LIKE is not locale aware and
is correct from the standard's point of view...
--
Tatsuo Ishii