Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide, Release 2 (9.2) Part No
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Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide Release 2 (9.2) March 2002 Part No. A96529-01 Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide, Release 2 (9.2) Part No. A96529-01 Copyright © 1996, 2002, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Primary Author: Cathy Baird Contributors: Dan Chiba, Winson Chu, Jessica Fan, Claire Ho, Simon Law, Geoff Lee, Peter Linsley, Keni Matsuda, Tamzin Oscroft, Shige Takeda, Linus Tanaka, Makoto Tozawa, Barry Trute, Mayumi Tsujimoto, Ying Wu, Michael Yau, Tim Yu, Chao Wang, Simon Wong, Weiran Zhang, Lei Zheng, Yan Zhu Graphic Designer: Valarie Moore The Programs (which include both the software and documentation) contain proprietary information of Oracle Corporation; they are provided under a license agreement containing restrictions on use and disclosure and are also protected by copyright, patent and other intellectual and industrial property laws. 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Contents Send Us Your Comments .................................................................................................................. xv Preface......................................................................................................................................................... xvii What’s New in Globalization Support? ................................................................................. xxvii 1 Overview of Globalization Support Globalization Support Architecture ............................................................................................... 1-2 Locale Data on Demand .............................................................................................................. 1-2 Architecture to Support Multilingual Applications ................................................................ 1-4 Using Unicode in a Multilingual Database............................................................................... 1-6 Globalization Support Features....................................................................................................... 1-6 Language Support ........................................................................................................................ 1-7 Territory Support.......................................................................................................................... 1-7 Date and Time Formats ............................................................................................................... 1-8 Monetary and Numeric Formats................................................................................................ 1-8 Calendars Feature......................................................................................................................... 1-8 Linguistic Sorting.......................................................................................................................... 1-8 Character Set Support .................................................................................................................. 1-9 Character Semantics..................................................................................................................... 1-9 Customization of Locale and Calendar Data............................................................................ 1-9 Unicode Support........................................................................................................................... 1-9 iii 2 Choosing a Character Set Character Set Encoding...................................................................................................................... 2-2 What is an Encoded Character Set?............................................................................................ 2-2 Which Characters Are Encoded?................................................................................................ 2-3 What Characters Does a Character Set Support?..................................................................... 2-5 How are Characters Encoded?.................................................................................................... 2-9 Naming Convention for Oracle Character Sets...................................................................... 2-11 Length Semantics.............................................................................................................................. 2-12 Choosing an Oracle Database Character Set ............................................................................... 2-14 Current and Future Language Requirements......................................................................... 2-16 Client Operating System and Application Compatibility .................................................... 2-16 Character Set Conversion Between Clients and the Server.................................................. 2-16 Performance Implications of Choosing a Database Character Set ...................................... 2-17 Restrictions on Database Character Sets ................................................................................. 2-17 Choosing a National Character Set .......................................................................................... 2-18 Summary of Supported Datatypes........................................................................................... 2-19 Changing the Character Set After Database Creation ............................................................... 2-20 Monolingual Database Scenario.................................................................................................... 2-20 Character Set Conversion in a Monolingual Scenario........................................................... 2-21 Multilingual Database Scenarios................................................................................................... 2-23 Restricted Multilingual Support............................................................................................... 2-24 Unrestricted Multilingual Support........................................................................................... 2-25 3 Setting Up a Globalization Support Environment Setting NLS Parameters..................................................................................................................... 3-2 Choosing a Locale with the NLS_LANG Environment Variable .............................................. 3-4 Specifying the Value of NLS_LANG ......................................................................................... 3-6 Overriding Language and Territory Specifications................................................................. 3-7 Should the NLS_LANG Setting Match the Database Character Set?.................................... 3-8 NLS Database Parameters ................................................................................................................. 3-9 NLS Data Dictionary Views ........................................................................................................ 3-9 NLS Dynamic Performance Views............................................................................................. 3-9 OCINlsGetInfo() Function......................................................................................................... 3-10 Language and Territory Parameters..............................................................................................