utf8 ,sqlplus, unix, sqlldr and character translation

We have an Oracle 8.1.7 DB (running in Solaris 8) that was altered to have an NLS_CHARCTERSET of utf8.

A Weblogic application inserts rows to this DB.

The main two tables were created with mostly CHARACTER datatype columns instead of VARCHAR2 .

On a nightly basis a sqlplus script runs that takes data fro this oracle DB to a reporting DB (also ORace 8.1.7 on a separate solaris box)where the same tables are defined with VARCHAR2 type to save space.

Here is my question: If the client app can accept utf-8 encoded charaters, will my extract and load scripts that take data from one unix box and put it on another using sqlplus, ftp and sqlldr still work or will I mangle utf8 encoded characters inthe process ?

Seems to me that somewhere along the line, the charaters will be translated back to ascii unless I can tell sqlplus that spool files need to be utf8 encoded .

After reading the documentation on NLS etc. , I coulnd't find a good explanation of this.

Thanks Received on Sun Aug 11 2002 - 17:05:37 CDT