Automatic input validation

When you input multi-byte characters, OpenEdge automatically validates the input under certain conditions. Validation of multi-byte characters means OpenEdge checks that the lead byte has a value acceptable for lead bytes in this code page, and that each trail byte has a value acceptable for trail bytes in this code page.

CAUTION: Passing input validation is no guarantee a multi-byte character is valid. Though its lead byte has an appropriate lead-byte value and each of its trail bytes has an appropriate trail-byte value, the combination of values still might be invalid for the character's code page.

The following table describes when validation does and does not occur.

Table 1. Automatic validation of multi-byte input
Data source Validation
Keyboard OpenEdge automatically checks that multi-byte characters are valid.
File OpenEdge does not check that multi-byte characters are valid, because OpenEdge processes the data as bytes.
READKEY, SET, and UPDATE statements OpenEdge automatically checks that multi-byte characters are valid, whether they came from the keyboard or from a file.OpenEdge does not check that the lead-byte and trail-byte values constitute a valid character.
CHR function OpenEdge automatically checks that multi-byte characters are valid, whether they came from the keyboard or from a file.