Switch Codpage 1100 to 1401 for ERP-System (Non-Unicode)

[mfreyler]

Hello Experts,

we have a ERP 6.0 System with installed codepage 1100 (Non-Unicode and SDMP).

Now we have the necessary to exchange documents with a SAP System in Hungary. There has the codepage 1401 installed (is the default for eastern europe languages). The result are that we could not display the special characters from 1401 ...

So we have the Possibility to make a Unicode conversion, but i mean it is possible to switch our system from codepage 1100 to 1401, because in 1401 the character set of 1100 is included so we can interchange documents without great efforts ... (like a UC conversation).

So i have the follwing questions:

- Could anybody confirm me that is possible to switch the codepage from 1100 to 1401 of a existing SAP-System (ECC 6.0)?

- What are the requested steps to do that?

- Is it necessary to unload / load the database at the codepage switch?

Best regards

Markus

[nils_buerckel · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

this highly depends on the special characters which you currently use in your system.

Theoretically the German characters ü,ä,ö,ß are included in 1401.

Hence if you use these special characters only, you could switch to 1401.

However the probability is high that you also use other characters.

E.g. ²,³,µ,±, ... are supported on ISO-8859-1 (SAP number 1100) only.

E.g.  think about Units of measure (µm....), which are delivered by SAP standard.

See below picture for the common characters between latin-1 and Latin-2.

See also http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8859-1 and http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8859-2 .

The problem is that it is difficult to find out which characters are stored on the DB and also used by applications.

If you support languages other than EN and DE, it is pretty clear that a switch is not possible.

Also there is a high risk that if you do the switch today, you might find problematic characters only during a Unicode conversion in a later point in time - and might need to do an MDMP conversion (with much higher effort).

Overall I see a latin-1 --> latin-2 switch as a very high risk and I would highly recommend to go for Unicode now - then you are for sure on the safe side and you are technically prepared to support any country, which might come next ....

Best regards,

Nils Buerckel

[mfreyler · Accepted solution]

Hi Nils,

one more question about the Codepage-Switch.

I am aware about the very high risk about this, but our customer want to test it first at a Sandbox-System.

What are the Steps of this Codepage Switch?

- Install 1401 at Server-Side (Operation System)

- De-Install 1100?

- What are necessary at SAP Side (Transaction I18N or Report RSCPINST)?

- Is it necessary to unload and reload the database with R3TRANS Tool?

Best regards,

Markus

[nils_buerckel · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

you need to install necessary locales on the server side and use SAP note 42305 for the setup (mainly RSCPINST). No "de-install" of code pages or export / import possible.

As stated before, I see this process as high risk. E.g. users might input non-supported characters (those mentioned before like ²,³,µ,±, ... ). This can cause problems with search help and during a later Unicode conversion. It is in fact difficult to test this and problems typically become visible at a later stage (when it is usually too late to switch back again) ...

Best regards,

Nils