Microsoft SQL Server does not support UTF8 for strings or query text.

To enable OpenROAD to use UTF8 while accessing Microsoft SQL Server through Enterprise Access, the Query Layer is used. The Query Layer converts strings (string literals, varchar, and char host variables) into nvarchar parameters before sending the query to Enterprise Access on Microsoft SQL Server.

The Query Layer is automatically enabled by default for Enterprise Access Microsoft SQL Server if the database is Unicode-enabled and II_CHARSETxx is set to UTF8 or double-byte character set or the Unicode extended system catalog is present. To disable the Query Layer, set the II_W4GL_QUERY_LAYER environment variable to OFF.

All object names (for example, table names) in queries sent to Enterprise Access should be 7-bit ASCII.