FEAT: Adding conn.setencoding() API

[jahnvi480]

Work Item / Issue Reference

AB#34917

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Summary

This pull request adds support for configurable text encoding in the Connection class of the mssql_python package, allowing users to specify how text is encoded when interacting with the database. It introduces new methods for setting and retrieving encoding settings, provides robust validation and error handling, and includes comprehensive tests to ensure correct behavior across a wide range of scenarios.

Encoding support and configuration:

• Added setencoding and getencoding methods to the Connection class, allowing users to configure and retrieve text encoding and C type for SQL statements and parameters. The default encoding is set to 'utf-16le' with SQL_WCHAR, and robust validation is performed for both encoding and ctype values.
• Improved error handling in setencoding, raising ProgrammingError for invalid encodings or ctypes, and InterfaceError if the connection is closed.

Testing and validation:

• Added a comprehensive suite of tests for the new encoding functionality, including default settings, explicit and automatic ctype detection, invalid parameter handling, persistence across cursors, thread safety, and case sensitivity. Also includes a (skipped) test for Unicode data operations.

Documentation and compatibility:

• Updated docstrings and comments to clarify encoding behavior and DB-API 2.0 compatibility.

These changes make it easier and safer for users to control how text data is encoded and sent to the database, with clear error reporting and extensive test coverage to ensure reliability.

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This pull request adds configurable text encoding support to the Connection class in the mssql_python package, allowing users to specify how text data is encoded when communicating with the database.

• Introduces setencoding() and getencoding() methods for configuring and retrieving text encoding settings
• Provides automatic ctype detection based on encoding type with override capability
• Includes comprehensive validation, error handling, and extensive test coverage

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File	Description
mssql_python/connection.py	Adds setencoding/getencoding methods with validation and default UTF-16LE encoding
tests/test_003_connection.py	Comprehensive test suite covering encoding functionality, edge cases, and error conditions
mssql_python/type.py	Minor documentation update removing pyodbc compatibility reference