Message-Id: <10693.122966@fatcity.com> From: "Weaver, Walt" Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 09:58:01 -0700 Subject: RE: National characters This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand this format, some or all of this message may not be legible. ------_=_NextPart_001_01C05893.3385AFD0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hi Andrey, We're running UTF8 on an 8.1.6 database, using CLOB's and varchar2 to store English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and (in test, anyway) Japanese stuff. The only problem I had was when I migrated the data initially from an 8.0.5 database running WE8ISO8859P1 to the UTF8 database. I pre-created all of the tables and indexes, and during the data migration got a number of "inserted value too large for column" messages. Didn't have any problems with the LOB columns, but I had to create the varchar2 columns twice the size they used to be, since UTF8 uses double the space for accented characters and such. Other than that, I really haven't had any problems or done anything special. Just remember that LOB support wasn't available until Oracle 8i, so if you're going to use UTF8, you won't be able to use any earlier versions of Oracle... HTH, --Walt Weaver Bozeman, Montana, USA -----Original Message----- From: Andrey Bronfin [mailto:bronfin@VisualTop.com] Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 8:46 AM To: ORACLE-L@lists.sunysb.edu; ORACLE-L@fatcity.com; oracledba@quickdoc.co.uk Subject: National characters Dear Gurus ! It appears that i need to design , build and support a database that will support DATA in different languages with different character sets ( including such "exotic" languages as Chinese , Hindi , Arabic , Russian , Hungarian and all the European languages ) . The texts in those languages should be stored in Varchar and LOB columns . I need to support all those various character sets in ONE DB . I don't need to manipulate it , just to be able to retrieve the text as it was stored ( typed in ) . I have no experience with DB character sets other than English , therefore i'd like to ask those of U who has such experience to help me . Please tell me whether this can be done and how . Where can i read about it ( docs , URLs , etc ... ) ? What should i be aware of ? Are there any limitations ? Thanks a lot in advance . Andrey Bronfin ------_=_NextPart_001_01C05893.3385AFD0 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi Andrey,

We're running UTF8 on an 8.1.6 database, using CLOB's and varchar2 to store English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and (in test, anyway) Japanese stuff.

The only problem I had was when I migrated the data initially from an 8.0.5 database running WE8ISO8859P1 to the UTF8 database. I pre-created all of the tables and indexes, and during the data migration got a number of "inserted value too large for column" messages. Didn't have any problems with the LOB columns, but I had to create the varchar2 columns twice the size they used to be, since UTF8 uses double the space for accented characters and such.

Other than that, I really haven't had any problems or done anything special. Just remember that LOB support wasn't available until Oracle 8i, so if you're going to use UTF8, you won't be able to use any earlier versions of Oracle...

HTH,

--Walt Weaver

Bozeman, Montana, USA

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrey Bronfin [mailto:bronfin@VisualTop.com]
Sent: Monday, November 27, 2000 8:46 AM
To: ORACLE-L@lists.sunysb.edu; ORACLE-L@fatcity.com; oracledba@quickdoc.co.uk
Subject: National characters

Dear Gurus !

It appears that i need to design , build and support a database that will support DATA in different languages with different character sets ( including such "exotic" languages as Chinese , Hindi , Arabic , Russian , Hungarian and all the European languages ) .

The texts in those languages should be stored in Varchar and LOB columns .

I need to support all those various character sets in ONE DB . I don't need to manipulate it , just to be able to retrieve the text as it was stored ( typed in ) .

I have no experience with DB character sets other than English , therefore i'd like to ask those of U who has such experience to help me .

Please tell me whether this can be done and how .

Where can i read about it ( docs , URLs , etc ... ) ?

What should i be aware of ?

Are there any limitations ?

Thanks a lot in advance .

Andrey Bronfin