Cannot find the right code page in ADS to communicate with dbase III

Question

I got an accounting software that use dBase III database directly. I also got an home made software written in Delphi XE2 that use these database. Delphi use Sybase Advantage server V11 to communicate with the database. If i write a "é" in the account software, when i read it with the Advantage server, I read a ",".

The account software company seem to think that it was written with IBM codepage 850 but if I use ICLAND850 in Advantage server, i does not work.

After trying many different codepage in ADS, I dont seem to be able to find the right one.

I change the code page in the advantage server but do I have to change it elsewhere?

Is there a way or a software to detect the caracter set in DBF?

Answer 1

You have to set the AdsTableOptions.AdsCharType in your TAdsQuery and TAdsTable components:

http://devzone.advantagedatabase.com/dz/webhelp/Advantage11/ade_adschartype.htm

The dynamic collations are only support for VFP-Tables so for the old DBF files you are dealing with you have to set this to either ANSI or OEM.

Depending on what kind of connection you are using (ALS or Remote server) the way to set up the correct ANSI/OEM codepage is different.

See also my answer to this question: Advantage Database Index Collation Sequence

It's possible to get the raw bytes used in the data using TField.AsBytes. I would read the raw bytes from an example row and field that contains characters outside of ASCII and look them up in OEM/ANSI tables to find out the correct code page.

There are OEM and ANSI tables available on the web.

For example the é character (which is Unicode $00E9) is $82 in OEM 850:

http://demo.icu-project.org/icu-bin/convexp?conv=ibm-850_P100-1995&s=ALL