• when managing the character strings
• when managing the data files
• when managing the controls that display data coming from character strings or data files.

• an option to define the string format at runtime in the project configuration description.
  To change the string format in the current configuration:
  
  1. Open the project description window: on the "Project" tab, in the "Project configuration" group, click "Current configuration".
  2. In the window that appears, go to the "Unicode" tab and select the desired mode: Use ANSI strings at run time or Use UNICODE strings at runtime.
• the UNICODE String type.
• conversion functions:
  These functions are used to perform conversions from Ansi to Unicode and from Unicode to Ansi. These conversions are automatically performed when handling character strings (see the next paragraph).
  

  AnsiToUnicode	Converts: an ANSI string (Windows) to a UNICODE string. a buffer containing an ANSI string (Windows) to a buffer containing a UNICODE string.
  StringToUTF8	Converts an ANSI or UNICODE string to UTF-8.
  UnicodeToAnsi	Converts: a UNICODE string to ANSI (Windows). a buffer containing a UNICODE string to a buffer containing an ANSI string (Windows).
  UTF8ToString	Converts a UTF-8 string to ANSI or UNICODE.
• the use of functions for handling the character strings:
  

  Complete	Returns a character string of a specified length.
  CompleteDir	Adds a backslash to the end of a string, if necessary.
  ExtractString	Allows you to: extract a substring from a string based on a specified string separator. search for substrings in a string based on a specified string separator.
  Left	Extracts the left part (i.e., the first characters) from a string or buffer.
  Length	Returns: the length of a string, i.e., the number of characters in the string (including spaces and binary zeros). the size of a buffer, i.e., the number of bytes in the buffer.
  Middle	Extracts: a substring from a string starting at a specified position. part of a buffer starting at a specified position.
  NoAccent	Converts accented characters in a string to non-accented characters.
  NoSpace	Returns a string after removing the spaces: from the left and right side of the initial string. within the string.
  Position	Finds the position of a specified string within another string.
  PositionOccurrence	Finds the Xth position of a string within another string.
  RepeatString	Concatenates N number of copies of the same specified string or buffer.
  Replace	Replaces all occurrences of a specified substring in a string with another specified substring.
  Reverse	Returns the character that corresponds to the difference between the ASCII code of a specific character in a string and 255.
  Right	Extracts the right part (i.e., the last characters) from a string or buffer.
  StringCompare	Compares two strings character by character: according to the sequence of ASCII characters. according to the alphabetical order.
  StringCount	Calculates: the number of occurrences of a specific character string (by respecting the search criteria) in another character string. the number of occurrences of a set of strings in an array.
  StringFormat	Formats a character string according to the selected options.
  TypeVar	Identifies the type of an expression, a variable (during a call to a procedure for example) or a control.
  Val	Returns the numeric value of a character string.
• the use of operators for handling the character strings:
  • the extraction operator ([[]])
  • the comparison operator (<>)
• the use of operators for browsing the character strings:
  • the FOR EACH STRING operator
  • the FOR EACH POSITION operator

• the use of functions for handling the text files:
  

  fWrite	Writes a character string into an external file (ANSI or UNICODE format).
  fWriteLine	Writes a line into a text file (in ANSI or UNICODE format).
  fRead	Reads a block of bytes (characters) in an external file (ANSI or UNICODE).
  fReadLine	Reads a line in an external file (in ANSI or UNICODE format).
  fOpen	Opens an external file (ANSI or Unicode) to handle it by programming.

Implicit conversions