Re: getting NCHAR data into our database

I am going through the same exact exercise. It appears that the national character set has to be a subset of the database character set(?). If this is true, then maybe the database character set should be UTF8 and the National Character set should ASCII. Anyway, to insert data, you can do this: insert into foo values (n'ascii to be stored in an UTF8 olumn'); --Note the "n".

  I too would like to hear :
1. Is anyone doing this.
2. Is there a reason to? Considering it is possible to create a database with UTF8 and never store a multi-byte language (and thus not having a storage consideration), is there a performance impact for doing so. If not, why wouldn't you always build an UTF8 database so that it would be easier to support foreign languages in the future? 3. Do I have to use the nls_charset library with JDBC to use the nvarchar2 datatype?

I hope this helps you. I would be happy to exchange information on this...Thanks

"tiny anklet bells" <nroshak_at_hcs.harvard.edu> wrote in message news:89mfp2$bei$2_at_news.fas.harvard.edu...
> Is anyone out there running a database that stores NCHAR data in a
> different character set than the overall character set? If so, please
> help me out here.
>
> Recently we decided that our testing database needed to store NCHAR and
> NVARCHAR data in a UTF8 national character set. The database was built
> with US7ASCII character set. I did ALTER DATABASE SET NATIONAL
> CHARACTERSET "UTF8" (etc), and the data is being stored and read
> correctly.
>
> The question is: How do you get fresh NCHAR data into the database when
> the character set != the national character set? The Oracle NLS
> documentation says, "Because SQL text such as the literals in SQL
> statements can only be represented by the database character set, and not
> the NCHAR character set, you should choose an NCHAR character set that
> either has an equivalent or subset character repertoire of the database
> character set." That is, we cannot input UTF8 literals into the database
> (either through SQL*Plus or through SQL statements passed by the
> application we're testing).
>
> Now I -know- there must be people out there who use a different NATIONAL
> CHARACTER SET than their CHARACTER SET -- otherwise what's the point of
> having NCHAR data at all? So there -must- be a way to get fresh NCHAR
> data into our tables. The question is, how the heck do you do it???
>
> At the moment, the only solution we've come up with is to put the UTF data
> into a flat file and import it using SQL*Loader. Yuck, yuck, uuugly.
> Please, post and let me know what the "standard" way is, or how you've
> been doing it.
>
> TIA,
> Natalka Roshak
> --
> He stands proud in his uniform
> He knows he's made it now
> He's been told he'll be a hero
> But he hasn't been told how
> He receives his plastic key to heaven
> Takes his holy vow
> Then he turns,
> Then he's gone
> --Peter Ulrich, "Taqaharu's Leaving"
Received on Fri Mar 03 2000 - 00:00:00 CST