Re: what characterset to use?

Ben <balvey_at_comcast.net> wrote:
> I'm re-reading the Globalization Guide again, it's still confusing.
>
> After reading this it sounds like Oracle is saying that conversion is
> a bad thing and that the database character set should be set the same
> as the client. This is the reason why there is so much confusion, at
> least on my part, on character sets.

It is a good thing that you are spending so much thought on the matter before you create your database - once you have created your database, it is hard to correct any design flaws you have made.

I agree with you that reading what you quoted from Oracle documentation sounds like they are all FOR having database character set and client character set identical. And true, other parts read like they are dead against it.

The truth of the matter is that there is no 100% correct solution without drawbacks. You'll have to weigh the pros and cons.

What speaks for having client and server use the same encoding, e.g. WE8MSWIN1252:

• No conversion overhead.

What speaks against it:

• No check if valid bytes are entered (can lead to garbage in database).
• You can only store Windows-1252 characters in the database.

I don't know, but I guess that conversion on characters in messages between client and server will not be the performance bottleneck of your database; usually it is disk I/O.

Ask yourself questions like:

• Is there a chance that, at some point, outlandish characters should be stored in a text field that was not originally designed for it?
• Can I be absolutely sure that no client will attempt to store characters in a wrong encoding (e.g., you have to import table data from a different company)?

Yours,
Laurenz Albe Received on Wed Aug 29 2007 - 03:03:45 CDT