Bidirectional-specific CCSIDs

The following bidirectional attributes are required for correct handling of bidirectional data on different platforms:
  • Text type
  • Numeric shaping
  • Orientation
  • Text shaping
  • Symmetric swapping

Because default values on different platforms are not the same, problems can occur when Db2® data is moved from one platform to another. For example, the Windows operating system uses LOGICAL UNSHAPED data, while z/OS® and OS/390® usually use SHAPED VISUAL data. Therefore, without support for bidirectional attributes, data sent from Db2 for z/OS to Db2 on Windows 32-bit operating systems may display incorrectly.

Db2 supports bidirectional data attributes through special bidirectional Coded Character Set Identifiers (CCSIDs). The following bidirectional CCSIDs have been defined and are implemented with Db2 as shown in Table 1. CDRA string types are defined as shown in Table 2.
Table 1. Bidirectional CCSIDs
CCSID Code Page String Type
420 420 4
424 424 4
856 856 5
862 862 4
864 864 5
867 862 4
916 916 5
1046 1046 5
1089 1089 5
1200 1200 10
1208 1208 10
1255 1255 5
1256 1256 5
5351 1255 5
5352 1256 5
8612 420 5
8616 424 10
9048 856 5
9238 1046 5
12712 424 4
13488 13488 10
16804 420 4
17248 864 5
62208 856 4
62209 862 10
62210 916 4
62211 424 5
62213 862 5
62215 1255 4
62218 864 4
62220 856 6
62221 862 6
62222 916 6
62223 1255 6
62224 420 6
62225 864 6
62226 1046 6
62227 1089 6
62228 1256 6
62229 424 8
62230 856 8
62231 862 8
62232 916 8
62233 420 8
62234 420 9
62235 424 6
62236 856 10
62237 1255 8
62238 916 10
62239 1255 10
62240 424 11
62241 856 11
62242 862 11
62243 916 11
62244 1255 11
62245 424 10
62246 1046 8
62247 1046 9
62248 1046 4
62249 1046 12
62250 420 12
Table 2. CDRA string types
String type Text type Numeric shaping Orientation Text shaping Symmetrical swapping
4 Visual Passthrough LTR Shaped Off
5 Implicit Arabic LTR Unshaped On
6 Implicit Arabic RTL Unshaped On
7* Visual Passthrough Contextual 1 Unshaped ligature Off
8 Visual Passthrough RTL Shaped Off
9 Visual Passthrough RTL Shaped On
10 Implicit Arabic Contextual LTR Unshaped On
11 Implicit Arabic Contextual RTL Unshaped On
12 Implicit Arabic RTL Shaped Off
  1. String orientation is left-to-right (LTR) when the first alphabetic character is a Latin character, and right-to-left (RTL) when it is an Arabic or Hebrew character. Characters are unshaped, but LamAlef ligatures are kept and are not broken into constituents.