How to use the character encoding model to use ' �' in java

Question

hi
I have to use the special characters like '�' using java.but when '�' character is transferred to data base or is displayed in my form,it is shown as '?'.but i need to display the original characters in the form of what it is.
what can i do as i expects the result .i needs it very urgently.so reply to me as soon as possible.
advance thank you
rgds
Oasisdeserts

Answer 1

Java stores all characters as 16 bit UNICODE (which has plenty of room far more exotic characters than Greek). Every time character data is brought into, or stored from the Java environment it passes through a specific character encoding. If you don't state the encoding explicitly it uses the default encoding of the machine it's running on (which is typically oriented to the language set in the locale.).
With a database the database driver is supposed to do any necessary translation. The non-latin character could be stored wrongly, the database could be returning it wrongly or whatever's creating your form could be interpretting it wrongly, or lack the capacity to display the character.
If it's, say, a JSP try setting the page encoding to UTF-8. Try dumping the characters read from the database in HEX and look them up at www.unicode.org.
Take a look at the database setup information, some have an option of storing characters as UNICODE or ASCII.
The "?" is substituted whenever a codec can't make sense of the codes it's translating, either the byte array is invalid or the UNICODE character can't be represented.