European character sets?

Hello,

I am developing a little database (PHP3+PostgreSQL) that needs to handle
non-english characters in the names (people being somewhat touchy when you
misspell their names).

I know very little about international (ISO?) character sets and I need
some RTFM references or hints to get started in the right direction.

Is it sufficient to set everything in the correct character set?
Do I need to do anything special for sorting (I hope the collating order
is handled correctly).

I'm also worried about searches: for example, if an english user selects
LIKE "Du%", I don't think he'll find "Durer" with u-umlaut.  It seems to
me I'd have to handle this by substituting a regexp for each letter likely
to have special forms?

Confused and thankful in advance
 --Louis  <louis@bertrandtech.on.ca>

Louis Bertrand       http://www.bertrandtech.on.ca/
Bertrand Technical Services, Bowmanville, ON, Canada
Tel: +1.905.623.1500  Fax: +1.905.623.3852

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