Re: Euro Character lost on export/import

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004, tosta_at_wtal.de wrote:
> Hi.
>
> An Euro symbol character in varchar2 fields gets lost on export
> and import beteen different databases.
>
> Source: Oracle 8i, NLS_CHARACTERSET WE8ISO8859P1
> Target: Oracle 9i, NLS_CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8 (Unicode)
>
> We're running a Java-based web app with the 8iDB and migrating
> to 9i. There are definitely fields with the Euro sym in the
> 8iDB. They are displayed in the web app. After migration, the
> Euro sym has changed to a question mark.

My guess is that the new client translation layer is the issue. A `?' usually means that the client doesn't know how to display a character. If Oracle did mangle the characters, I would expect to see mangled characters.

Your app understood how to display characters translated from WE8ISO8859P1. Has it been set up to understand how to display characters translated from AL32UTF8?

> I would simply like to know if I'm right with the following:
>
> WE8ISO8859P1 char set doesn't support the Euro (WE8ISO8859P15
> does), and Oracle "invents" its own code to represent the Euro
> sym. That's the reason the 8i app can display it.

Why would Oracle "invent" a code?

> On import, all texts are converted from WE8ISO8859P1 to
> AL32UTF8. Since Euro is not in WE8ISO8859P1,

AL32UTF8 most definitely should include variants of European character sets.

> there is no mapping for the oracle-invented Euro char code, as
> no conversion.
>
> Conclusion: There is nothing we can do as to live with it. If
> we had chosen WE8ISO8859P15 for the 8iDB in the beginning, we
> wouldn't have the trouble today.
>
> Right?

I doubt it.

> Looking forward to your comments,
>
> Tosta.
>
> P.S. The other problems migrating to unicode, namely the
> length-semantics problem, have been solved already, thanks.

-- 
Galen Boyer