Re: converting databases form SQL_ASCII to UTF8

On 04/22/2011 09:16 AM, Geoffrey Myers wrote:
> Vick Khera wrote:
>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 11:00 AM, Geoffrey Myers
>> <lists@serioustechnology.com <mailto:lists@serioustechnology.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Here's our problem. We planned on moving databases a few at a time.
>> Problem is, there is a process that pushes data from one database to
>> another. If this process attempts to push data from a SQL_ASCII
>> database to a new UTF8 database and it has one of these characters
>> mentioned above, the process fails.
>>
>>
>> The database's enforcement of the encoding should be the last layer
>> that does so. Your applications should be enforcing strict utf-8
>> encoding from start to finish. Once this is done, and the old data
>> already in the DB is properly encoded as utf-8, then there should be
>> no problems switching on the utf-8 encoding in postgres to get that
>> final layer of verification.
>
> Totally agree. Still, the question remains, why not leave it as SQL_ASCII?
>
Maybe because you'll have to consistently remember that you're doing
non-standard stuff?