Oracle8i National Language Support Guide Release 2 (8.1.6) December 1999 Part No. A76966-01 National Language Support Guide, Release 2 (8.1.6) Part No. A76966-01 Copyright © 1996, 1999, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved. Primary Author: Paul Lane Contributors: Winson Chu, Jason Durbin, Jessica Fan, Yu Gong, Josef Hasenberger, Claire Ho, Peter Linsley, Tom Portfolio, Den Raphaely, Linus Tanaka, Makoto Tozawa, Gail Yamanaka, Michael Yau, Hiro Yoshioka, Sergiusz Wolicki, Simon Wong Graphic Designer: Valarie Moore The Programs are not intended for use in any nuclear, aviation, mass transit, medical, or other inherently dangerous applications. It shall be the licensee’s responsibility to take all appropriate fail-safe, backup, redundancy and other measures to ensure the safe use of such applications if the Programs are used for such purposes, and Oracle disclaims liability for any damages caused by such use of the Programs. 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. Reverse engineering, disassembly, or decompilation of the Programs is prohibited. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. If you find any problems in the documentation, please report them to us in writing. Oracle Corporation does not warrant that this document is error free. Except as may be expressly permitted in your license agreement for these Programs, no part of these Programs may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Oracle Corporation. If the Programs are delivered to the U.S. Government or anyone licensing or using the Programs on behalf of the U.S. Government, the following notice is applicable: Restricted Rights Notice Programs delivered subject to the DOD FAR Supplement are "commercial computer software" and use, duplication, and disclosure of the Programs including documentation, shall be subject to the licensing restrictions set forth in the applicable Oracle license agreement. Otherwise, Programs delivered subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations are "restricted computer software" and use, duplication, and disclosure of the Programs shall be subject to the restrictions in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights (June, 1987). Oracle Corporation, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. Oracle is a registered trademark, and Enterprise Manager, Pro*COBOL, Server Manager, SQL*Forms, SQL*Net, and SQL*Plus, Net8, Oracle Call Interface, Oracle7, Oracle7 Server, Oracle8, Oracle8 Server, Oracle8i, Oracle Forms, PL/SQL, Pro*C, Pro*C/C++, and Trusted Oracle are registered trademarks or trademarks of Oracle Corporation. All other company or product names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contents Send Us Your Comments ................................................................................................................. xiii Preface........................................................................................................................................................... xv Feature Coverage and Availability .................................................................................................... xv Audience................................................................................................................................................. xv Knowledge Assumed of the Reader ............................................................................................ xv Installation and Migration Information ..................................................................................... xvi Application Design Information ................................................................................................. xvi How Oracle8i National Language Support Guide Is Organized ............................................... xvi Conventions Used in This Manual ................................................................................................. xvii 1 Understanding Oracle NLS Oracle Server NLS Architecture....................................................................................................... 1-2 Locale-Independent Operation................................................................................................... 1-2 Client/Server Architecture ......................................................................................................... 1-4 Standard Features ............................................................................................................................... 1-5 Language Support ........................................................................................................................ 1-5 Territory Support.......................................................................................................................... 1-6 Date and Time Formats ............................................................................................................... 1-7 Monetary and Numeric Formats................................................................................................ 1-7 Calendars ....................................................................................................................................... 1-7 Linguistic Sorting.......................................................................................................................... 1-7 Character Set Support .................................................................................................................. 1-9 Customization Features ................................................................................................................... 1-10 iii Character Set Customization..................................................................................................... 1-10 Calendar Customization............................................................................................................ 1-10 SQL Support ...................................................................................................................................... 1-10 2 Setting Up an NLS Environment Setting NLS Parameters..................................................................................................................... 2-2 Choosing a Locale with NLS_LANG .............................................................................................. 2-4 Specifying NLS_LANG................................................................................................................ 2-5 NLS_LANG Examples ................................................................................................................. 2-5 Overriding Language and Territory Specifications................................................................. 2-6 NLS Database Parameters ........................................................................................................... 2-7 Checking NLS Parameters................................................................................................................. 2-7 NLS Views ..................................................................................................................................... 2-7 OCI Functions................................................................................................................................ 2-8 Language and Territory Parameters .......................................................................................... 2-8 Time Parameters................................................................................................................................ 2-13 Date Parameters................................................................................................................................. 2-13 Date Formats ............................................................................................................................... 2-13 NLS_DATE_FORMAT............................................................................................................... 2-14 NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE......................................................................................................... 2-16 Calendar Parameter .......................................................................................................................... 2-17 Calendar Formats........................................................................................................................ 2-17 NLS_CALENDAR ...................................................................................................................... 2-20 Numeric Parameters ......................................................................................................................... 2-21 Numeric Formats ........................................................................................................................ 2-21 NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS ............................................................................................ 2-21 Monetary Parameters........................................................................................................................ 2-22 Currency Formats ......................................................................................................................