Re: NLS Setup, Unicode ?

"Thue Tuxen" <tuxen_at_esynergy.dk> wrote in message news:w%oN8.31111$N46.1178773_at_news010.worldonline.dk...
> Hi !
>
> I have an application which is using Oracle as DB.
> When it tries to store f.ex. Polish language in the DB I get an error,
> sometimes it just convert the character codes to other weird ones.
>
> The NLS_LANG of the DB is AMERICAN
> The application can handle Unicode.
> Am I supposed to set the language of the database to Unicode also, before
it
> works ?
>
> Hope you can help.
> Best regards, Thue Tuxen
>
>

You must differentiate between NLS_LANG and NLS_LANGUAGE. The former one is the only parameter which has the characterset. You need to set *that* parameter appropiately and make sure the characterset of the database is correct.
You can verify the characterset of the database by issuing select * from nls_database_parameters.
The NLS_LANG variable is composed of
<language>_<territory>.<characterset>
so
American_America.UTF8
You need to set that in the registry (Winblows) or as environment variable (Unixes)
You can view all the available values using select * from v$nls_valid_values.

If your database has the wrong characterset in 8.0 and higher you can change it by issuing
alter database characterset ...
job_queue_processes must be 0 and aq_processes must be 0 before you can do that, the database must be mounted in exclusive restricted mode. There is a note on Metalink outlining the exact procedure

Hth

--
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

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