The system processes the character data in client requests to the database as follows:
- A user submits a request in the character set specified as the client default.
- The database converts the client characters it receives to the default server character set (external-to-internal, or E2I conversion) for processing and data storage.
- The database converts data from the internal database character set back to the client character set (internal-to-external, or I2E conversion) when returning answers sets to the requesting client.
For information on character conversion options, see Character Conversion.