Forum Discussion
Character replacement on Teradata SQL import : "..." becomes "÷"
Hi there,
i encounter an issue probably related to regional settings but i dk how to solve it.
i do a sql extraction to get data from a Teradatabase.
Values i wanna get should look like this : "example value..." and instead i get "example value÷"
Tip : to get that ÷ sign, you need to hit those keys alt+246
Thanks !
Hi slap33 , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.
This is caused by a character encoding mismatch between Teradata and Power BI. Specifically, Teradata may be using a default character set like LATIN, while Power BI expects UTF-8 or Unicode characters. You need to ensure the connection uses UTF-8 encoding from the start.
If you're connecting via ODBC, update your connection string or DSN settings to include CHARSET=UTF8. For example:
Driver={Teradata};DBCNAME=your_server;UID=your_user;PWD=your_password;CHARSET=UTF8;
This tells the Teradata driver to use UTF-8, so special characters like the ellipsis (…) are correctly interpreted. Once set, this change ensures the correct characters come through without needing to do any replacements or transformations afterward.
If this helped solve the issue, please consider marking it “Accept as Solution” so others with similar queries may find it more easily. If not, please share the details, always happy to help.
Thank you.
7 Replies
Hi slap33 , thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
This issue may be related to character encoding mismatches between the Teradata database and Power BI.
Please refer below steps to help resolve this:
- Ensure that your Teradata database is using the correct character encoding (e.g., UTF-8). You can check this in the database settings or by querying the database metadata.
- Use Correct Functions like using SQL functions like TRANSLATE or REPLACE to handle special characters. Example:
SELECT TRANSLATE(column_name, '÷', '') AS cleaned_column
FROM your_table;
- Ensure that your SQL session is using the correct locale settings. You can set this in your SQL client or within the SQL query itself.
- Update Regional Settings in Power BI, Go to File > Options > Regional Settings. Ensure that the regional settings match the expected format for your data.
- Export the data to a CSV file and check if the issue persists. This can help isolate whether the problem is with the database or the tool.
If this helps, please consider marking it 'Accept as Solution' so others with similar queries may find it more easily. If not, please share the details.
Thank you.You can replace this value in the next step.
Hi that's what i did indeed but that's DIY solution. I'm looking for the clean solution as I don't what to do the replace each time I request the column
Hi slap33 , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.
This is caused by a character encoding mismatch between Teradata and Power BI. Specifically, Teradata may be using a default character set like LATIN, while Power BI expects UTF-8 or Unicode characters. You need to ensure the connection uses UTF-8 encoding from the start.
If you're connecting via ODBC, update your connection string or DSN settings to include CHARSET=UTF8. For example:
Driver={Teradata};DBCNAME=your_server;UID=your_user;PWD=your_password;CHARSET=UTF8;
This tells the Teradata driver to use UTF-8, so special characters like the ellipsis (…) are correctly interpreted. Once set, this change ensures the correct characters come through without needing to do any replacements or transformations afterward.
If this helped solve the issue, please consider marking it “Accept as Solution” so others with similar queries may find it more easily. If not, please share the details, always happy to help.
Thank you.Hi slap33 , Hope the issue is solved. Can you please confirm it by marking it 'Accept as solution', so others with similar queries may find it easily. If not, please share the details. Thank you.
Hi slap33 , Hope your issue is solved. If it is, please consider marking the answer 'Accept as solution', so others with similar issues may find it easily. If it isn't, please share the details.
Thank you.Hi slap33 , We are closing this thread as we haven't heard from you in a while, according to our follow-up policy. If you have any more questions, please start a new thread on the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum. We will be happy to assist you! Thank you for being part of the community!
