Unicode conversions exists for all native character sets. When converting between two native character sets, Unicode conversion uses Unicode as an intermediate character set. For example, to convert between the server default character set (CP 437), and the client character set (CP 860), CP 437 is first converted to Unicode; Unicode is then converted to CP 860.
Unicode conversions may be used either when the default character set of the server is UTF-8, or a native character set. You must specifically configure your server to use Unicode conversions (unless the server’s default character set is UTF-8).
Earlier versions of Adaptive Server used direct conversions, and it is the default method for character set conversions. However, Unicode conversions allow easier and less complex character set conversion. While Adaptive Server direct conversions are still supported, Sybase now also uses Unicode conversions to provide complete conversion support for all character sets and has no plans to add new direct conversions.
