Re: Character set for exp/imp

Michel Cadot <micadot{at}altern{dot}org> wrote:
> | I have to migrate a database WE8ISO8859P1 (8i) to
> | to another database AL32UTF8 (9i)
> | I did an export with NLS_LANG=.WE8ISO8859P1
> | what is the right NLS_LANG to do the import ?
> | when I tried the import with WE8ISO8859P1 or AL32UTF8
> | I got a warnings about conversion.
> | what is the right NLS_LANG to do the import ?
> | or it doesn't matter ?
> |
> | Thanks in advance
> |
>
> WE8ISO8859P1
>
> Of course you have conversion because you convert from a
> character set to another very different one.
> But it is just code point changes and not character changes.

You might run into a problem if you have characters in your database that require more than one byte.

If for example a field was defined as CHAR(3) in your old database, the table created by the import will also be CHAR(3), and since your old database probably had NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS set to BYTE, the new field will actually be CHAR(3 BYTE).

If you had a value 'été' in that column, it will generate an error during import because that string needs 5 bytes in UTF-8, but the column can contain only 3 bytes.

You will have to change the table manually so that the field is CHAR(3 CHAR). Yours,
Laurenz Albe Received on Thu Nov 06 2008 - 01:53:15 CST