Using the DirectConnect interface – PB Docs 2019

The DirectConnect interface uses SAP’s Open Client CT-Library
(CT-Lib) API to access a database through SAP middleware data access
products such as the DirectConnect for OS/390 component of Mainframe
Connect and Open ServerConnect.

Accessing Unicode data

PowerBuilder can connect, save, and retrieve data in both ANSI/DBCS
and Unicode databases. When character data or command text is sent to the
database, PowerBuilder sends a DBCS string if the UTF8 database parameter
is set to 0 (the default). If UTF8 is set to 1, PowerBuilder sends a UTF-8
string.

The database server must have the UTF-8 character set installed. See
the description of the UTF-8 database parameter in the section called “UTF8” in Connection Reference.

A Unicode database is a database whose character set is set to a
Unicode format, such as UTF-8, UTF-16, UCS-2, or UCS-4. All data must be
in Unicode format, and any data saved to the database must be converted to
Unicode data implicitly or explicitly.

A database that uses ANSI (or DBCS) as its character set might use
special datatypes to store Unicode data. Columns with these datatypes can
store only Unicode data. Any data saved into such a column must be
converted to Unicode explicitly. This conversion must be handled by the
database server or client.