Delphi dbExpress and Interbase: UTF8 migration steps and risks?

Question

Currently, our database uses Win1252 as the only character encoding. We will have to support Unicode in the database tables soon, which means we have to perform this migrati

Answer 1

Problem: persistent string fields require a Size property which is the logical size of the field multiplied by four (see also: Is it possible to tweak TStringField to work like TWideStringField in Delphi?)

Symptom: Access violations

Solution: delete the persistent field and add it again to update the Size property. (side effect: the DisplayWidth will also increase size, leading to problems with UI)