Hello Joop!
 JB> I want to use low ASCII symbols with their values in a database, for
 JB> instance the two smileys CHR(001) and CHR(002), or the heart
 JB> CHR(003), the diamond CHR(004), etc., the male sign CHR(011) and the
 JB> female sign CHR(012).
 JB> To give an example of some records with names (but it can be every
 JB> other entry):
 JB> record 1:     Johnston John Mr.
 JB>                       ^    ^             ^ indicates where marker must
 JB> come record 2:     Johnstons Jane Mrs.                        ^    ^
 JB> If I would use high ASCII symbols as separators record 2 would come
 JB> above record 1 in the indexed database, and that's not what I want.
You can still use high ASCII if you index on a function that replaces them 
with spaces, and not on the field directly. It becomes a little slower 
though. Better still: is there no *keyboard* character that you can use 
(which will never be used in the strings), like the vertical | bar? You can't 
ask your users to keep entering Alt-codes.
Bye,
Jan
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