Conversion issues in importing DBF in SQL 2000

Hello!
I try to import a DBF file into my Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database and I
have some issues with corrupted data. I actually have stored in my DBF
records with different languages, such as German or French, for which I used
some special characters (accents, ?, ..).
When I import my DBF file, I got no error but when I look at the data, the
strange characters have not been converted and I got errors in place of them
.
What can I do to make sure my import respects the integrity of my data?
I was using the standard Microsft DBF driver and I have tested the Advantage
Databaser Server driver as well. Same results unfortunately.
Many thanks for your help.
Regards,
BertFor national characters you need the unicode datatype. Look up 'nchar',
'nvarchar' and 'ntext' in Books Online. Also the use of unicode is well
explained in Books Online.
ML|||Thank you for your note.
Could you please help me once more? It sounds like Books Online is a place
on the web you know about, but this is not my case. Which website could I
consult to know more about the local unicode?
If I understand it right, I need to replace all the characters, is it exact?
Does SQL Server 2000 do not convert these characters automatically?
Thanks.
Bert
"ML" wrote:

> For national characters you need the unicode datatype. Look up 'nchar',
> 'nvarchar' and 'ntext' in Books Online. Also the use of unicode is well
> explained in Books Online.
>
> ML|||Unicode is an universal standard: http://www.unicode.org/
Books Online are available on-line: http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/sql/
and can also be installed locally:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...&DisplayLang=en
To store data as unicode, the data must be created as unicode in the client
application. Look it up in your programming language reference.
ML