store arabic in SQL database

Question

I tried to store Arabic string in SQL 2008 database but it converted to \" question mark \" why ? and what should I do ?

Answer 1

This is helpful but work here's what works for me in all cases

ALTER DATABASE [database] SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE;

GO

ALTER DATABASE [database] COLLATE ARABIC_CI_AS;

GO

ALTER DATABASE [database] SET MULTI_USER;

GO

update: eventually I have to change datatype varchar to nvarchar in my project

Answer 2

Add 'N' before every value. example:

INSERT INTO table1 VALUES(N'aaaaaaaaa',N'ששששששששששששש',N'aaaaaaaaaaa',N'ششششششششششش')

Answer 3

make sure all your tables and varchar columns have the collation of utf8_general_ci