Re: NLS Charactsets (the sodding things!)

Hi Kevin,

you have to distinguish between database character set and frontend character set.

The database character set is defined at the time of creation. This is what you have seen in looking up
the v$nls_parameters. If you omit any special nls_charset while creating the db you will get us7ascii.

The registry key is only used for the frontend tools like sql*plus. It translates the characters entered
into the database charset and vice versa.

So please check your db create scripts and change the character set to we8iso8859p1 and then create
the database. You can only change character sets after creation if they are "compatible". So you can change
US7ASCII to WE8ISO8859P1 because all characters of US7ASCII remain at the same place in the code table.

hth
Andy

Kevin Zarzecki <oracle_at_kevinzarzecki.com> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag: 1001060195.28236.0.nnrp-10.c1ed11ad_at_news.demon.co.uk...
> Hi,
>
> I have recently completed a fresh installation of Oracle 8.1.7 on an NT4
> server.
> I wanted to use the WE8ISO8859P1 character set in the database I setup so
I
> changed the registry key NLS_CHAR
> to ENGLISH.UNITED KINGDOM.WE8ISO8859P1
> however when I installed, and loaded up the database and began inserting
> data the £ sign appeared as a #.
> I checked the nls parameters:
> select * from v$nls_parameters.
> The nls_characterset was set to US7ASCII, which I was surprised to see, as
I
> have not overridden this parameter anywhere i.e. not in my init files, and
> no other registry settings.
> I resolved the problem by performing an alter database character set, and
> setting the character set myself.
>
> However it is still bugging me, as to where the nls_characterset got set
> other than from system registry.
>
> Can anyone shed any light on this one??
>
>
> Thanks
>
> A very puzzled
>
> Kevin.
>
>
Received on Fri Sep 21 2001 - 06:23:24 CDT