SQL Server ODBC Drivers - do they all support UNICODE correctly?

• MarkThornton

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  June 17, 2010 at 4:46 am

  #387177

  We have an application that merges NVARCHAR text fields, held in a SQL Server Database, into Microsoft Word. All the text fields fail to display, making the mail merge unusable. We noticed that one field only did come through and that it was a VARCHAR. On a test system, we changed some fields from NVARCHAR to VARCHAR, and found that they then displayed after the mail merge.

  We have tried changing platforms, but the behaviour seems to be the same on both SQL Server 2005 and 2008, and with Word 2003, 2007 and 2010. We have also tried changing the font of the merged text fields to Arial Unicode MS, but this made no difference.

  All the above testing makes us suspect that the problem is with the ODBC layer. The SQL Server ODBC driver that we are using is from Microsoft, version 2000.85.1132.00, dated 14/04/2008.

  We are hoping that we can fix this problem by changing to a better ODBC driver, as this would be much simpler than changing all NVARCHAR fields to VARCHAR in the database.

  Thanks in advance for any help received.

  Mark Thornton

  PS - If SQL Server Central has a better forum for this question, then please let me know.