TO_MULTI_BYTE

Purpose

TO_MULTI_BYTE() converts all single-byte characters into the corresponding multi-byte characters. This function is valid only when your database character set contains both single-byte and multi-byte characters.

Syntax

TO_MULTI_BYTE(char)

Parameters

char can be CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. If a single-byte character in char does not have a multi-byte equivalent, the single-byte character is displayed in the output character string.

Return type

The return type is the same as the data type of char.

Examples

• The following example converts the single-byte character B to the multi-byte B in UTF8.

  obclient> SELECT dump(TO_MULTI_BYTE( 'B')) FROM DUAL;
  +---------------------------+
  | DUMP(TO_MULTI_BYTE('B'))  |
  +---------------------------+
  | Typ=22 Len=3: 239,188,162 |
  +---------------------------+
  1 row in set
  

• The following example converts a half-width character in a string into a full-width character.

  obclient> SELECT TO_MULTI_BYTE('Hello World') AS text FROM DUAL;
  +---------------------+
  | TEXT                |
  +---------------------+
  | Ｈｅｌｌｏ  Ｗｏｒｌｄ |
  +---------------------+
  1 row in set