Saving a Copy of Your Table to a Different Character Set - MapInfo_Pro - 2023

MapInfo Pro Help
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2023
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MapInfo Pro Help
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2023-09-12
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2023-09-12T16:39:16.995549

You can work with characters from any language in your data files, so that multi-language tables display properly in maps, browsers, the Info tool, and other locations. MapInfo Pro can open tables, files, or workspaces with Unicode characters in the file name or path name regardless of the locale of MapInfo Pro or which localized version of MapInfo Pro you are running.

You can also save a copy of a table to a different character set then the one currently in use. Though, we recommend that you do not save a copy of a table between Unicode and non-Unicode character sets.

Note: You can encounter data corruption, due to truncation or conversion, when saving a copy of a database table between Unicode and non-Unicode character sets. When saving non-UTF-8 (non-Unicode) to UTF-8 (Unicode), there is the potential for data truncation. When saving UTF-8 or UTF-16 (Unicode) to a non-Unicode, there is the potential for conversion issues.

When saving data to the MapInfo Extended TAB format (NativeX format), MapInfo Pro interprets the width of character fields in tables with a UTF-16 character set (charset) as the number of characters with two bytes (16-bits) per character. It interprets the width of character fields in tables with any character set other than UTF-16 (such as WindowsLatin1, Cyrillic, and UTF-8) as the number of bytes. For non UTF-8 character sets each character takes up one byte, but could also take from one to four bytes. For UTF-8, since it is used to store characters from any language, it is more likely to require more than one byte. This means that you need to allow for larger field widths to avoid data truncation.

Using the UTF-16 character set is the best way to ensure that all data is preserved, but it results in larger file sizes. The UTF-8 character set can be used to encode all characters faithfully, but truncation could occur. When you save a copy of a table from a non UTF-8 character set to UTF-8, increase the field width to avoid truncation.

To save to a different character set:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • If you have only one table open, then on the TABLE tab, in the Content group, click Save, and Save Copy As to open the Save Copy of Table As dialog box.

      If the Save Copy As displays, select the table from the list and click Save As.

    • If you have several tables open, then on the HOME tab, in the File group, click Save Copy As to open the Save Copy As dialog box. Choose a table from the drop-down list. Click Save top open the Save Copy of Table As dialog box.
  2. Select the Save in Background check-box to execute the save operation in background.
    Note: This option is supported and selected by default for input table types Native, NativeX, OGR and GPKG and for output to Native and NativeX.
  3. Type the name of your new table in the File Name box of the dialog box.
  4. Specify the drive and directory where the new file is to be saved.
  5. Select the file type from the Save as type list to save to.

    You can only use Unicode character sets, UTF-8 and UTF-16, with the MapInfo Extended (*.tab) file type.

  6. Click the Charset button to open Select a Charset dialog box.
  7. Choose a character set from the list of those available.
  8. Click OK; MapInfo Pro returns you to the Save Copy of Table As dialog box.
  9. Click Save.

MapInfo Pro creates the new table, but it is not open. When you want to work with the new table, you must first open it on the HOME tab, in the Open list, click Table.

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