How Are Character Sets Used?

   The NLS_LANG parameter defines a client terminal’s character-encoding scheme. Different
clients can use different encoding schemes. Data passed between the client and the server is
converted automatically between the two encoding schemes. The database’s encoding scheme
should be a superset, or equivalent, of all the clients’ encoding schemes. The conversion is
transparent to the client application.
When the database character set and the client character set are the same, the database assumes
that the data being sent or received is of the same character set, so no validations or conversions
are performed.
    Character set conversion may be required in a client/server environment, if a client application
resides on a different platform than the server and if the platforms do not use the same characterencoding
schemes. Character data passed between the client and the server must be converted
between the two encoding schemes. Character conversion occurs automatically and
transparently through Oracle Net.