1) Make sure your connection is set to use UTF-8.
2) The IBM i is certainly capable of storing double-byte data, it just depends on how the Physical File (table) was created. You can either execute DSPFD LIBRARY/FILE
from a 5250 session and search for DBCS capable
- you will see a Yes
or No
that indicates if the table is capable of storing double-byte characters. Of if you want to use SQL to find out you can query the SYSIBM database:
SELECT * FROM SYSIBM.SQLCOLUMNS WHERE TABLE_SCHEM = 'MYLIB' AND TABLE_NAME = 'MYTABLE'
You'll want to look for the TYPE_NAME
column to see the data type. If it's VARGRAPHIC
then it is capable of storing double-byte characters.