Read SQL Server field text value in Delphi XE with simultaneously character conversion

I have a SQL Server 2005 database with COLLATION SQL_Latin_General_CP1_CI_AS and I want to run a query from Delphi XE via ADO. Data in SQL Server is Greek and Latin characters. But in Delphi I get unreadable character strings.开发者_如何转开发 How can I manage this problem with Delphi XE ?

Since you say that you have both Greek and Latin characters in the db I guess that you are already using nvarchar in the db.

In Delphi you should then use TWideStringField for nvarchar fields. TStringField is for varchar (ansistring).

Field1 contains "γειά σου"

StringField := ADODataSet1.FieldByName('Field1') as TStringField;
ShowMessage(StringField.Value);

ShowMessage shows "?e??s??"

This works fine

WideStringField := ADODataSet1.FieldByName('Field1') as TWideStringField;
ShowMessage(WideStringField.Value);

Edit 1 If you have varchar fields in db you should use TStringField and you need to make sure that the "Language for non-Unicode programs" is Greek(Greece).

"Control Panel - Region and Language - Administrative - Change system locale..."

I have found that sometimes UTF-8 is stored in databases in VarChar fields, usually from Java programs.

If you see things like â€", there's a good chance that's what is going on.

You could try

// Delphi 2009+
UTF8ToUnicodeString(RawByteString( db_value ))

// Delphi 2007 and older
UTF8Decode( db_value )

If this is the case, you can also use a sql function to convert the VarChar fields to NVarChar