Java-SQL-Connection to Microsoft Access - Unicode Problem

Try

props.put ("charSet", "UTF8");
Connection c = DriverManager.getConnection (url, props);

following discusses the enhancements made to the bridge for using a charset other than default

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/jdbc/bridge.html

Also ensure you are using a font that is capable of sidplaying the characters (otherwise you'll get a ? displayed)

Hello,

first of all: thanks for your quick responeses.

i've tried both of your ideas (the properties and the data-source approach of mr. objects), and both
unfortunately don't work.

I have java 1.5.0_06-b05, so i'm up-to-date, i'm using access 2003, and the table tbl_strokes contains
a mapping between single unicode characters and unicode memory, containing some information of the
characters.  the memo at some point contains asian characters.
still i get "?" for all of these.
I can determine that this is definitely not a display problem, the integer value of the characters is the same
as the integer value of '?'. also i have all the fonts i need installed.

what do i do wrong?

here is my code:

/**
 * This class encapsulates the database access.
 *
 * @author Thomas Weise
 */
public final  class Database
  {
/**
 * The database connection.
 */
  private static        Connection          CONNECTION        ;  
/**
 * The strokes-statement.
 */
  private static        PreparedStatement   STROKES_STATEMENT ;
 
/**
 * The database driver.
 */
  private static  final String              DB_DRIVER     =
    "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver";
 
/**
 * The database name.
 */
  private static  final String              DB_NAME       =
    "jdbc:odbc:japanese";
 
/**
 * The sql statement for strokes.
 */
  private static  final String              SQL_STROKES   =
    "select strokes from tbl_strokes where ascw(character)=?";
 
/**
 * This internal constructor stops you from instantiating the database.
 */
  private Database()
    {
    Typesafe.do_not_call();
    }
 
/**
 * Initialize the database encapsulation.
 * @throws ClassNotFoundException If the database driver class is not
 *                                available.
 * @throws SQLException           If we could not connect to the database.
 * @throws NamingException        When something strange happens.
 */
  public  static  final void  init  ()
      throws ClassNotFoundException, SQLException, NamingException
    {
    Properties  l_p;
   
    Class.forName(DB_DRIVER);
   
   
    l_p = new Properties();
    l_p.put("charSet", "UTF-8");
    CONNECTION        = DriverManager.getConnection(DB_NAME, l_p);  
           
    STROKES_STATEMENT = CONNECTION.prepareStatement(
                                          SQL_STROKES,
                                          ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY,
                                          ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY);
    STROKES_STATEMENT.setEscapeProcessing(false);
    STROKES_STATEMENT.setMaxRows(1);
   
    //STROKES_STATEMENT.setFetchSize(1);
    //STROKES_STATEMENT.setMaxFieldSize(40 * 1024);
   
    Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread()
        {
        @Override
        public  final void  run()
          {
          Database.dispose();
          }
        });
    }
 
/**
 * Obtain the strokes for a given character.
 * @param p_char  The character to obtain the strokes of.
 * @return  The string containing the instructions on how to paint the
 *          character, or <code>null</code> if none could be found.
 */
  public  static  final String  get_strokes (final char p_char)
    {
    ResultSet l_rs;
   
    try
      {
      STROKES_STATEMENT.setInt(1, p_char);
      l_rs = STROKES_STATEMENT.executeQuery();      
      if(l_rs.next())
        {
        return l_rs.getString(1);
        }
      }
    catch(Throwable l_t)
      {
      l_t.printStackTrace();
      }
   
    return null;
    }
 
 
/**
 * Dispose the database connectivity encapsulation.
 */
  static  final void  dispose ()
    {
    try
      {
      STROKES_STATEMENT.close();
      }
    catch(Throwable l_t)
      {
      //
      }
    finally
      {
      STROKES_STATEMENT = null;
      }
   
    try
      {
      CONNECTION.close();
      }
    catch(Throwable l_t)
      {
      //
      }
    finally
      {
      CONNECTION = null;
      }
    }
  }

how are you displaying them.
A ? typically means that the font did not have a glyph to display that character.
Check the actual value of the char to see  if its being recieved ok.

no, this is not the case.
i can display asian characters correctly, if i try to display an int-to-char-cast, for example, they come correct.
plus i can watch them in the eclipse debugger, where they are displayed correct.

i can invert the characters i receive from the database to integers, and those characters i get from the
database have the same integer value as '?'.
This method would work even if i had no asian fonts or support installed at all.

the problem must be between the init method and the method get_strokes, i think.
i have checked in access if i can make a sql inside access that obtains the correct values and it works.
exactly the same query (select strokes from tbl_strokes where ascw(character)=XXX) works fine there.
(like it should work by definition).

have you an idea? all i use is the code above, maybe you can try it yourself.
the only relevant table in my access 2003 database is tbl_strokes, having only
two relevant columns: character = text(1) and strokes = memo.
The character is something, type for example 'A' into it.
in the memo there is some random text, including one unicode character,
like the chinese &#19968; (U+4E00, 0xD2BB).

the database is registered as odbc - system-dns under the name "chinese"

get_strokes only returns always ? instad of &#19968; at all places.

drnick

I've found out that the problem lies in the java-odbc bridge. this thing cannot handle unicode properly for some reason.
There seems to be no possible way to work around this, so i had to make up another solution.
I've written a visual basic program exporting all data from the access database and imported it into a hsqldb.
Now i can work properly.

Glad you got it working. Are you sure about the Unicode thing? References ..?