oracle supported character set

Support for Unicode in Oracle Database

Oracle Database began supporting Unicode as a database character set in release 7. Table 6-1 summarizes the Unicode character sets supported by Oracle Database.

Table 6-1 Unicode Character Sets Supported by Oracle Database

Character Set	Supported in RDBMS Release	Unicode Encoding	Unicode Version	Database Character Set	National Character Set
AL24UTFFSS	7.2 - 8i	UTF-8	1.1	Yes	No
UTF8	8.0 - 11g	UTF-8	For Oracle Database release 8.0 through Oracle8i release 8.1.6: 2.1 For Oracle8i Database release 8.1.7 and later: 3.0	Yes	Yes (Oracle9i Database and Oracle Database 10g only)
UTFE	8.0 - 11g	UTF-EBCDIC	For Oracle8i Database releases 8.0 through 8.1.6: 2.1 For Oracle8i Database release 8.1.7 and later: 3.0	Yes	No
AL32UTF8	9i - 11g	UTF-8	Oracle9i Database Release 1: 3.0 Oracle9i Database Release 2: 3.1 Oracle Database 10g, Release 1: 3.2 Oracle Database 10g, Release2: 4.0 Oracle Database 11g, Release 1: 5.0	Yes	No
AL16UTF16	9i - 11g	UTF-16	Oracle9i Database Release 1: 3.0 Oracle9i Database Release 2: 3.1 Oracle Database 10g, Release 1: 3.2 Oracle Database 10g, Release 2: 4.0 Oracle Database 11g, Release 1: 5.0

 

Table A-1 Oracle Database Supported Languages

Language Name	Language Abbreviation	Default Sort

SIMPLIFIED CHINESE

zhs

binary

 

 

Table A-4 Recommended ASCII Database Character Sets

	Name	Description	Comments
Asian
	JA16EUC	EUC 24-bit Japanese	MB, ASCII
	JA16EUCTILDE	The same as JA16EUC except for the way that the wave dash and the tilde are mapped to and from Unicode.	MB, ASCII
	JA16SJIS	Shift-JIS 16-bit Japanese	MB, ASCII, UDC
	JA16SJISTILDE	The same as JA16SJIS except for the way that the wave dash and the tilde are mapped to and from Unicode.	MB, ASCII, UDC
	KO16MSWIN949	MS Windows Code Page 949 Korean	MB, ASCII, UDC
	TH8TISASCII	Thai Industrial Standard 620-2533 - ASCII 8-bit	SB, ASCII, EURO
	VN8MSWIN1258	MS Windows Code Page 1258 8-bit Vietnamese	SB, ASCII, EURO
	ZHS16GBK	GBK 16-bit Simplified Chinese	MB, ASCII, UDC
	ZHT16HKSCS	MS Windows Code Page 950 with Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set HKSCS-2001 (character set conversion to and from Unicode is based on Unicode 3.0)	MB, ASCII, EURO
	ZHT16MSWIN950	MS Windows Code Page 950 Traditional Chinese	MB, ASCII, UDC
	ZHT32EUC	EUC 32-bit Traditional Chinese

Universal
	AL32UTF8	Unicode 5.0 UTF-8 Universal character set

 

Setting NLS Parameters

NLS (National Language Support) parameters determine the locale-specific behavior on both the client and the server. NLS parameters can be specified in the following ways:

• As initialization parameters on the server

  You can include parameters in the initialization parameter file to specify a default session NLS environment. These settings have no effect on the client side; they control only the server's behavior. For example:

  NLS_TERRITORY = "CZECH REPUBLIC"
  
  

• As environment variables on the client

  You can use NLS environment variables, which may be platform-dependent, to specify locale-dependent behavior for the client and also to override the default values set for the session in the initialization parameter file. For example, on a UNIX system:

  % setenv NLS_SORT FRENCH
  
  

• With the ALTER SESSION statement

  You can use NLS parameters that are set in an ALTER SESSION statement to override the default values that are set for the session in the initialization parameter file or set by the client with environment variables.

  ALTER SESSION SET NLS_SORT = FRENCH;
  

  See Also:

  Oracle Database SQL Reference for more information about the ALTER SESSION statement

• In SQL functions

  You can use NLS parameters explicitly to hardcode NLS behavior within a SQL function. This practice overrides the default values that are set for the session in the initialization parameter file, set for the client with environment variables, or set for the session by the ALTER SESSION statement. For example:

  TO_CHAR(hiredate, 'DD/MON/YYYY', 'nls_date_language = FRENCH')
  

  See Also:

  Oracle Database SQL Reference for more information about SQL functions, including the TO_CHAR function

Table 3-1 shows the precedence order of the different methods of setting NLS parameters. Higher priority settings override lower priority settings. For example, a default value has the lowest priority and can be overridden by any other method.

Table 3-1 Methods of Setting NLS Parameters and Their Priorities

Priority	Method
1 (highest)	Explicitly set in SQL functions
2	Set by an ALTER SESSION statement
3	Set as an environment variable
4	Specified in the initialization parameter file
5	Default

Table 3-2 lists the available NLS parameters. Because the SQL function NLS parameters can be specified only with specific functions, the table does not show the SQL function scope.

Table 3-2 NLS Parameters

Parameter	Description	Default	Scope:I = Initialization Parameter File E = Environment Variable A = ALTER SESSION
NLS_CALENDAR	Calendar system	Gregorian	I, E, A
NLS_COMP	SQL, PL/SQL operator comparison	BINARY	I, E, A
NLS_CREDIT	Credit accounting symbol	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	E
NLS_CURRENCY	Local currency symbol	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_DATE_FORMAT	Date format	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE	Language for day and month names	Derived from NLS_LANGUAGE	I, E, A
NLS_DEBIT	Debit accounting symbol	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	E
NLS_ISO_CURRENCY	ISO international currency symbol	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_LANG See Also: "Choosing a Locale with the NLS_LANG Environment Variable"	Language, territory, character set	AMERICAN_AMERICA. US7ASCII	E
NLS_LANGUAGE	Language	Derived from NLS_LANG	I, A
NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS	How strings are treated	BYTE	I, E, A
NLS_LIST_SEPARATOR	Character that separates items in a list	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	E
NLS_MONETARY_CHARACTERS	Monetary symbol for dollar and cents (or their equivalents)	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	E
NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP	Reports data loss during a character type conversion	FALSE	I, A
NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS	Decimal character and group separator	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_SORT	Character sort sequence	Derived from NLS_LANGUAGE	I, E, A
NLS_TERRITORY	Territory	Derived from NLS_LANG	I, A
NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT	Timestamp	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT	Timestamp with time zone	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A
NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY	Dual currency symbol	Derived from NLS_TERRITORY	I, E, A