Is unicode necessary for a English and Spanish application/database?

We may add a spanish version of the application we are currently developing in the future. Do I need to use unicode datatypes in SQL2K or are plain varchar, etc. datatypes fine? Or can we convert in the future if necessary? Thanks.
Randy
"Randy" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FD264AD2-770E-4E25-B38B-1F887B5F1111@.microsoft.com...
> We may add a spanish version of the application we are currently
developing in the future. Do I need to use unicode datatypes in SQL2K or
are plain varchar, etc. datatypes fine? Or can we convert in the future if
necessary? Thanks.
> Randy
If you find a code page that has all the characters you need, then you can
use varchar instead of nvarchar.
The most common collation and charset in the US is
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/r.../sbcs/1252.htm
It has the whole spanish alphabet, but lacks the Euro character.
David
|||Actually that charset (cp1252) does have the Euro char (at position
0x80). Randy, if you use any 1252-based collation such as the one that
David referenced you can store English or Spanish data without using
Unicode data types. In fact, code page 1252 is capable of storing most
of the Western European languages like English, Spanish, Portuguese,
German, French, Italian, etc in non-Unicode columns.
You may wish to consider Unicode for further down the road, though... if
you're adding support for Spanish today, is it possible that you may find
a market in Japan or Israel tomorrow? It's easier to start using
Unicode from the start of an app's lifetime than it is to convert an
existing one. It is possible to convert down the road, although you may
end up needing to change not just the table data types, but also stored
proc and trigger code as well as application code.
HTH,
Bart
Bart Duncan
Microsoft SQL Server Support
Please reply to the newsgroup only - thanks.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights.
From: "David Browne" <davidbaxterbrowne no potted meat@.hotmail.com>
References: <FD264AD2-770E-4E25-B38B-1F887B5F1111@.microsoft.com>
Subject: Re: Is unicode necessary for a English and Spanish
application/database?
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 12:31:32 -0500
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"Randy" <anonymous@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FD264AD2-770E-4E25-B38B-1F887B5F1111@.microsoft.com...
> We may add a spanish version of the application we are currently
developing in the future. Do I need to use unicode datatypes in SQL2K or
are plain varchar, etc. datatypes fine? Or can we convert in the future
if
necessary? Thanks.
> Randy
If you find a code page that has all the characters you need, then you can
use varchar instead of nvarchar.
The most common collation and charset in the US is
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/r.../sbcs/1252.htm
It has the whole spanish alphabet, but lacks the Euro character.
David