SAP Note 16154 - How do you identify a character set?

Symptom:

Umlauts or other national special characters are not processed or displayed correctly.
The place (in Customizing, RFC declaration, spool administration, etc.) where the character sets are maintained is known, but the customer does not know the correct character set number.

Cause and prerequisites

Unknown.

Solution
A)
Sample characters:
You require sample characters. For input problems, this is data where you know which characters are supposed to be where. For output problems, you either require documentation (e.g. printer manual) or you will have to experiment.
A1)
Input file with sample characters available in UNIX.
Use command 'od -cx < file_name | more' to display the assignment of characters to byte coding.
Comment: Avoid duplicate errors! If you use special characters, the danger of duplicate errors exists. Do not always assume that a key actual transmits the character that is painted on it. When you see characters on the screen, this may be because your window is not configured normally, etc.

B)
Finding a character in a character set.
R/3 uses a proprietary SAP numbering for characters. To display the list, select menu item
->Tools ->Administration
->Spool ->Spool administration (SPAD)
->Character sets ->SAP characters
The German special characters, for example, are called Adieresis, Odieresis, Udieresis, adieresis, odieresis, udieresis, and germandbls. They have the SAP numbers 258, 279, 287, 294, 338, 361, and 251.

In more recent systems, report RSCP0005 exists, which can display all existing byte codings of a chracter. If this report is not present in your system, you will have to guess and search. Open two windows:
->Tools ->Administration
->Spool ->Spool administration (SPAD)
->Character sets ->Character sets
and
->Tools ->Administration
->Spool ->Spool administration (SPAD)
->Utilities ->For char. sets -> Print character set
You will hopefully find a character set (with a four-digit number) that display the same byte coding as the characters in your sample data.
This number is required for Customizing and other configuration tasks.

You also have the option of defining your own character sets:
->Tools ->Administration
->Spool ->Spool administration (SPAD)
->Character sets ->Character sets
Position the cursor on a similar character set
->Copy from
Assign your character set a four-digit number starting with 9 (9xxx).
Once you have maintained a character set, you may have to delete the caches (the spool work process normally does this automatically, but if you also need the character sets for something else...):
->Tools ->Administration
->Spool ->TemSe administration (SP12)
->Character sets ->Char. set buffer (CCC) ->Invalidate CCC