The Select Translator dialog box lists the installed translation .dlls and lets you select one, enabling the driver to translate data from one character set to another. The application and data source often store data in different character sets. ODBC provides a generic mechanism that lets the driver translate data from one character set to another.
After you specify a translation .dll, the driver loads it and calls it to translate all data flowing between the application and data source. This includes all SQL statements and character parameters being sent to the data source, and all character results, character metadata such as column names, and error messages that are retrieved from the data source. Connection data is not translated, because the translation .dll is not loaded until after the application has connected to the data source.
The translator .dll that implements the translation functions SQLDriverToDataSource and SQLDataSourceToDriver, which are called by the driver, can be written by the application developer, the driver developer, or a third party.
For more information about translation .dlls, see the