Global Language Support (GLS) permits you to use different locales. A GLS locale is an environment that has defined conventions for a particular language or culture.

By default, IBM Informix products use the U.S.-English ASCII code set and perform in the U.S.-English environment with ASCII collation order. Set your environment to accommodate a nondefault locale if you plan to use any of the following functionalities:

• Non-English characters in the data
• Non-English characters in user-specified object names
• Conformity with the sorting and collation order of a non-ASCII code set
• Culture-specific collation and sorting orders, such as those used in dictionaries or phone books

For descriptions of GLS environment variables and for detailed information on how to implement non-U.S. English environments, see the IBM Informix: GLS User's Guide.