Converts character data from any supported character set into the NCHAR character set.

Syntax

TO_NCHAR( string-expression [, source-charset-name ] )

Parameters

Returns

LONG NVARCHAR

Remarks

If source-charset-name is specified then this function is equivalent to:

CAST( CSCONVERT( CAST( string-expression AS BINARY ),
 'nchar_charset', source-charset-name ) 
 AS NCHAR );

For more information about nchar_charset, see CSCONVERT function [String].

If source-charset-name is not provided then this function is equivalent to:

CAST( string-expression AS NCHAR );

See also

• Recommended character sets and collations
• CONNECTION_EXTENDED_PROPERTY function [String]
• CSCONVERT function [String]
• NCHAR function [String]
• TO_CHAR function [String]
• UNICODE function [String]
• UNISTR function [String]

Standards and compatibility

Example

If you have a BINARY value containing data in the cp850 character set, the following example to converts the data to the NCHAR character set and data type:

SELECT TO_NCHAR( 'cp850_data', 'cp850' );