The SYS(987) function controls if Unicode data is returned as is or converted to ASCII.

>I placed data into cursor via sqlexec from SQL Server 2008 . Some Arabic text comes as "?????"
>Previously SQL data was loaded from Foxpro also with sqlexec
>and foxpro value was transformed to unicode like below before being put into Insert statement
>
>xunicode = strconv(xutf8,12)
>xres = 'convert(nvarchar(' + transform(len(xutf8)) + '),0x' + strconv(xunicode,15)+')'
>
>So when compare values as they are :
>from foxpro side I've got text with diacritical marks
>from cursor side ?????
>
>How can I compare those two on equality ?
>
>
>foxpro without conversion
>MOUSTAFA ABBES مصطفى عباس
>sql cursor
>MOUSTAFA ABBES ????? ????"
>
>How it is seen in Server Management Studio
>MOUSTAFA ABBES مصطفى عباس