# 22. Virtuoso Functions Guide - charset_define

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Functions Index

## charset_define

Define a character set.
charset_define (in name varchar, in charset_string any, in aliases any);
Description

This function creates a new narrow language-specific character set, or redefines an existing one.

Parameters
name – The name of the character set to define. This becomes the "preferred" name of the character set.
charset_string – Wide string with the character codes for each given character from 1 to 255. That is, a 255-byte long NCHAR defining the Unicode codes for narrow chars 1-255.
aliases – Vector of character set names that are to be aliases of the character set being defined. Use NULL if there are to be no aliases.
Return Types

None

Errors

sqlstate | error code | error text
--- | --- | ---
2C000 | IN001 | The UTF-8 is not a redefinable charset
2C000 | IN002 | charset_define : Charset table not a wide string
2C000 | IN003 | charset_define : 0 not allowed as a charset definition
2C000 | IN004 | charset <name> already defined. Drop it first
2C000 | IN005 | Alias <position> is not of type STRING

Examples
New 4th character, and aliases

To setup the 4th character to be Unicode 0xffce, and give the character set 2 aliases, you would make a call like this:

    charset_define ('NEW-CHARSET',
          N'\x1\x2\x3\xffce\x5....' , vector ('SOME-CHARSET', 'ANOTHER-CHARSET'));

The character string should contain 255 wide characters that are arbitrary unicode values.

See Also

charsets_list()