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Re: what characterset to use?

From: Laurenz Albe <invite_at_spam.to.invalid>
Date: 24 Aug 2007 10:21:59 GMT
Message-ID: <1187950916.651336@proxy.dienste.wien.at>


sybrandb_at_hccnet.nl wrote:

>>2) If you (as misguided admins too often do) mistakenly set NLS_LANG
>>   to the database character set, no character conversion AND NO
>>   INTEGRITY CHECKS are performed and you can store all sort of garbage
>>   in your database without even noticing. It will cause problems later on,
>>   though. This is an Oracle bug in my opinion, although Oracle will
>>   probably disagree with me on this.

>
> It's not a bug. Setting the database characterset to the character set
> of the client is, especially when the server O/S doesn't support it.
> Setting the client characterset to the characterset of the database,
> especially when the O/S doesn't support the database characterset is a
> bug too.
> Eventually it is a Mickeysoft bug as Mickeysoft is not supporting the
> correct ISO characterset.
> It is NOT an Oracle bug!

You got me wrong.

Of course it is not Oracle's bug if I set my NLS_LANG wrong.

But it is Oracle's bug (in my opinion) if I have set the client character set to US7ASCII, insert a byte > 127 in a text field, and neither get an error nor (as Oracle seems to prefer) have the byte clandestinely converted to a question mark.

I claim that the missing check for incorrect characters is a bug.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe

PS: By "bug" I mean a software error, not a user mistake. Received on Fri Aug 24 2007 - 05:21:59 CDT

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