{"id":1967,"date":"2025-12-24T21:18:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2026-05-01T18:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:24:38","slug":"clarion-12-beta-ustring-returns-ansi-unicode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/clarion-12-beta-ustring-returns-ansi-unicode\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarion 12 Beta: USTRING Returns (ANSI + Unicode)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s shipping in the mid-January beta<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In mid-January we\u2019ll be releasing a Clarion 12 beta that brings back <strong>USTRING<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TL;DR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Clarion 12 beta (mid-January) reintroduces\u00a0<strong>USTRING<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>USTRING<\/strong>\u00a0is updated to handle both\u00a0<strong>ANSI<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Unicode<\/strong>\u00a0strings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Clarion 12 maintenance update for the current shipping release will be published at the same time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The beta is intended for side-by-side installation in a separate folder.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This beta focuses on predictable behavior and clearer intent in string handling.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can evaluate the change incrementally before the next full release.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Also shipping: Clarion 12 maintenance update<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the same time as the beta, we\u2019ll also be releasing an updated maintenance build for the current shipping version of Clarion 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Install notes (side-by-side)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Clarion 12 beta is intended to be installed into a separate folder so you can keep your production Clarion 12 install intact and evaluate the beta side-by-side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why USTRING is back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clarion developers care about two things when it comes to string handling: <strong>correctness<\/strong> and <strong>stability<\/strong>. In Clarion 12 we explored making Unicode capability available through the existing <strong>STRING<\/strong> type with a strong emphasis on minimizing impact to existing code. Since then, we\u2019ve continued testing and listening to practical, real-world feedback about how developers want to work with strings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The mid-January beta takes a more explicit approach: <strong>USTRING<\/strong> returns, and has been updated to handle both <strong>Unicode strings<\/strong> and <strong>regular ANSI strings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What this means for day-to-day development<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Clearer intent:<\/strong> USTRING makes it obvious (at the declaration level) that a value may be Unicode-aware.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Practical compatibility:<\/strong> USTRING is designed to work with both ANSI and Unicode content, so you can adopt it where it makes sense.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Incremental evaluation:<\/strong> You can test this beta in focused areas first (utilities, import\/export, API edges, UI text, etc.).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Impact and rollout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is a beta release, so the goal is to give you something you can run against real applications and real data. If you have areas of your app that are particularly string-heavy (parsing, formatting, concatenation, report output, external integrations), those are the best candidates for early testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your feedback is what helps us validate the edge cases and ensure this lands in a way that improves the day-to-day experience for Clarion developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s next<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We\u2019ll follow up with more concrete notes as the beta is delivered (including any implementation details and feedback from early testers). The direction is straightforward: keep Clarion development productive today while continuing to modernize the foundations for what comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We&#8217;re excited to start the new year with both the beta release and a maintenance update release for the shipping version of C12. If you try this beta, let us know what you think \u2014 and stay tuned, there\u2019s more to come. <br><br>Merry Christmas from SoftVelocity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"> And Thank you for all the support this year! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s shipping in the mid-January beta In mid-January we\u2019ll be releasing a Clarion 12 beta that brings back USTRING. TL;DR Also shipping: Clarion 12 maintenance update At the same time as the beta, we\u2019ll also be releasing an updated maintenance build for the current shipping version of Clarion 12. Install notes (side-by-side) The Clarion 12 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/clarion-12-beta-ustring-returns-ansi-unicode\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Clarion 12 Beta: USTRING Returns (ANSI + Unicode)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clarion-12","category-clarionnews","category-rtl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1970,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions\/1970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clarionsharp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}