Arabic Language support in out to database

[akassem]

Hi,

Currently I need to transfer Arabic data from an Oracle database to another database using Alteryx designer

both databases character sets are "AR8MSWIN1256" which of course supports Arabic

the problem is that in order to read Arabic text into Alteryx I have to mark the "Force SQL W Char Support" in the input tool

which forced text conversion into Unicode. (conversion is done correctly)

once data is converted I can't out it back to the second database as it is now incompatible and shows as question marks.

the only way is to use NVarchar2 in the database which supports UTF16 and yes it shows Arabic correctly

can I out the data encoded back as "AR8MSWIN1256" so that I may use Varchar2 instead of having to switch to NVchar2?

Note: I tried same flow on same databases using Tableau prep and it worked fine

Thank you and best regards

[MargaritaW]

Hello @akassem 

Good question. What driver version are you using? Can you share a small sample of your data (10+ rows) that you want to write out (after Unicode conversion)? I'd like to test it / try it. Thank you!

[akassem]

Hi Margarita

what driver you need to know it version? and please find attached a sample of my data (after it is converted to unicode), thank you 

Ahmed S. Kassem

Application Development Manager

ISFP

[MargaritaW]

Thank you @akassem

I left out a couple of key details, sorry. The driver version is for the Oracle driver. That was a good sample, thanks, Is it possible for you to share that same data sample in a yxdb format as well? thank you !!  

[akassem]

Dear Margarita,

thanks for your effort to help, I am using Oracle Instant client 19.3 and a quick connection to connect to my data source. Also please find attached the same sample of data saved in yxdb format.

regards,

Ahmed S. Kassem

[MargaritaW]

Absolutely @akassem. Happy to help. Thanks again for the file and the information. We are testing on our end and so far it looks like NVchar2 is the only way to go. At the moment Nora @ntobon is doing some additional testing. She will circle back.

[ntobon]

@akassem You will have to use nvarchar in Oracle and w_vstring in Alteryx to make it work. We don't support custom encoding right now unfortunately. If you do have the time, please submit an Idea here: Product Ideas

[akassem]

Ok I will submit the idea, thanks for your effort Nora