SPL and upper(): How to compare character with code 255?

Hi, I'm trying to realize "upper" function on SPL, and I'm using some national charset. I've got example from FAQ. There is the problem: I can operate with characters like follow: if str[1,1] = 'x' then str[1,1] = 'X' But I can't compare str[1,1] to character with code 0xff (maybe becouse it's some control character for Online?). Note that I can insert it into column... So, I should try to emulate this character with function like "ascii" in 4GL (ascii 255). There is no such function in SQL expressions. OK, then I try to get numeric value for str[1,1]. But it seems to me, it is also impossible... at least HEX(str[1,1]) doesn't work. I'm using Online 7.22 / SCO OpenServer Anybody can help me? Many Thanks, -- Alexander