The database manager supports three types of character data:
| Note: | Character refers to data types CHAR, VARCHAR and LONG VARCHAR in this discussion. |
Each database has a default character subtype (that is, the CHARSUB value) which can be either SBCS (single-byte character set) or mixed (mixed single and double-byte character set). The default character subtype is the value used for the subtype attribute of any new character column that is created by either the CREATE TABLE statement or the ALTER TABLE statement. The default subtype is used if a subtype is not specified as a package default option or a preprocessing option, and is not specified explicitly using a subtype clause, or implicitly using a CCSID clause.
The CHARSUB value is also used for determining CCSIDs. For more information on CCSIDs, see Choosing the Application Server Default CHARNAME and CCSID, CCSID Conversion, and Determining CCSID Values. For information on how to change the default character subtype, see Setting the Application Server Default Character Subtype.