Working with Multilingual Data in SQL Databases through Erlang

Explore the complexities of handling multilingual data in SQL databases through this 27-minute conference talk from Code BEAM America 2025. Learn to identify and diagnose Unicode-related issues that can cause critical problems in database systems, while examining how concepts like string length and case sensitivity become multifaceted challenges when working with diverse character sets. Discover guidelines for writing robust tests to guard against encoding problems, understand the impact of default settings and implicit resolution rules, and implement best practices for Unicode support in database design and querying. The presentation examines these challenges through the practical lens of a database virtualization platform built with Erlang, providing real-world insights into managing character set encodings across different SQL database systems in our increasingly diverse digital landscape.