Re: Using Oracle NCHAR/NVARCHAR2/NCLOB datatypes in Oracle 8i

Wes Gamble wrote:

> Thanks for any help in advance.
>
> I am working for a software vendor and we are moving to support Oracle
> in a new release of our product. In the hopes of making our
> internationalization effort easier, we wanted to use the
> NCHAR/NVARCHAR/NCLOB datatypes to store our string data since these
> are guaranteed to store data in Unicode in Oracle 9i.
>
> However, in Oracle 8i, according to the Oracle 9i Globalization
> Support document, "NCHAR types in Oracle 8 and Oracle 8i were designed
> to support special Oracle specific fixed-width Asian character sets."
>
> QUESTION: Is there any harm in using the NCHAR/NVARCHAR/NCLOB
> datatypes to store string data in Oracle 8 as well as in Oracle 9?
>
> I understand that these data types are bound to whatever the NLS
> settings are for the database server, and that data stored in these
> columns will not be stored in Unicode (unless of course the customer
> has that configured as their NLS character set.
>
> Thanks,
> Wes Gamble

I was involved a few years back advising a major software OEM moving their product from SQL Server to Oracle so that they could better compete in the international marketplace. We set the character set up as UTL8 and had worked in VARCHAR2 and CLOB without any problems. I wouldn't go for the exotic unless it is required.

Daniel Morgan Received on Wed Jan 08 2003 - 10:53:27 CST