TO_MULTI_BYTE

Syntax

Description of the illustration to_multi_byte.gif

Purpose

TO_MULTI_BYTE returns char with all of its single-byte characters converted to their corresponding multibyte characters. char can be of datatype CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. The value returned is in the same datatype as char.

Any single-byte characters in char that have no multibyte equivalents appear in the output string as single-byte characters. This function is useful only if your database character set contains both single-byte and multibyte characters.

This function does not support CLOB data directly. However, CLOBs can be passed in as arguments through implicit data conversion.

Examples

The following example illustrates converting from a single byte A to a multibyte A in UTF8:

SELECT dump(TO_MULTI_BYTE( 'A')) FROM DUAL; 

DUMP(TO_MULTI_BYTE('A')) 
------------------------ 
Typ=1 Len=3: 239,188,161