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Preface

1 Globalization Support

Oracle Server Globalization Support Architecture

Locale-Independent Operation

Multitier Architecture

Unicode

Globalization Support Features

Language Support

Territory Support

Date and Time Formats

Monetary and Numeric Formats

Calendars

Linguistic Sorting

Character Set Support

Customization

2 Choosing a Character Set

Character Set Encoding

What is an Encoded Character Set?

Which Characters to Encode?

How Many Languages Does a Character Set Support?

How are Characters Encoded?

Oracle's Naming Convention for Character Sets

Choosing an Oracle Database Character Set

Interoperability with System Resources and Applications

Character Set Conversion

Database Schemas

Performance Implications

Restriction

Choosing an Oracle NCHAR Character Set

Restrictions on Character Sets Used to Express Names and Text

Summary of Datatypes and Supported Encoding Schemes

Changing the Character Set After Database Creation

Monolingual Database Scenario

Character Set Conversion

Multilingual Database Scenarios

Restricted Multilingual Support

Unrestricted Multilingual Support

3 Setting Up a Globalization Support Environment

Setting NLS Parameters

Choosing a Locale with the NLS_LANG Initialization Parameter

Specifying NLS_LANG as an Environment Variable

NLS_LANG Examples

Overriding Language and Territory Specifications

NLS Database Parameters

Checking NLS Parameters

NLS Views

OCI Functions

Language and Territory Parameters

Date and Time Parameters

Date Formats

Time Formats

Calendar Parameter

Calendar Formats

NLS_CALENDAR

Numeric Parameters

Numeric Formats

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS

Monetary Parameters

Currency Formats

NLS_CURRENCY

NLS_ISO_CURRENCY

NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY

NLS_MONETARY_CHARACTERS

NLS_CREDIT

NLS_DEBIT

Linguistic Sorting Parameters

NLS_SORT

NLS_COMP

NLS_LIST_SEPARATOR

Character Set Parameter

NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP

4 Linguistic Sorting

Overview of Oracle's Sorting Capabilities

Using Binary Sorts

Using Linguistic Sorts

Monolingual Linguistic Sorts

Multilingual Linguistic Sorts

General Linguistic Sorting Information

Using Linguistic Indexes

Linguistic Indexes for Multiple Languages

Requirements for Linguistic Indexes

Case-Insensitive Searching

Customizing Linguistic Sorts

5 Supporting Multilingual Databases with Unicode

Overview of Unicode

What is Unicode?

Unicode Encoding

Implementing a Unicode Solution in the Database

Enabling Multilingual Support with Unicode Databases

Enabling Multilingual Support with Unicode Datatypes

How to Choose Between a Unicode Database and a Unicode Datatype Solution

Comparison of Unicode Solutions

Unicode Case Studies

Migrating Data to Unicode

Migrating to a Unicode Database

Migrating to Use the NCHAR Datatypes

Designing Database Schemas to Support Multiple Languages

Specifying Column Limits

Storing Data of Multiple Languages

Storing Documents in LOBs

6 Unicode Programming

Overview of Unicode Programming

Database Access Product Stack and Unicode

SQL and PL/SQL Programming with Unicode

Using the UTL_FILE Package with NCHAR

OCI Programming with Unicode

OCI Unicode Code Conversion

When NLS_LANG is Set to UTF8 or AL32UTF8 in OCI

Binding and Defining SQL CHAR Datatypes in OCI

Binding and Defining SQL NCHAR Datatypes in OCI

Binding and Defining CLOB and NCLOB Unicode Data in OCI

Unicode Mode in OCI

Pro*C/C++ Programming with Unicode

Pro*C/C++ Data Conversion in Unicode

Using the VARCHAR Datatype

Using the NVARCHAR Datatype

Using the UVARCHAR Datatype

JDBC and SQLJ Programming with Unicode

Java String Bind and Define in Unicode

JDBC Restriction

Java Data Conversion in Unicode

ODBC and OLEDB Programming with Unicode

Unicode-Enabled Drivers in ODBC and OLEDB

OCI Dependency in Unicode

ODBC and OLEDB Code Conversion in Unicode

ODBC Unicode Datatypes

OLEDB Unicode Datatypes

ADO Access

7 SQL Programming

Locale-Dependent SQL Functions

Default Specifications

Specifying Parameters

Unacceptable Parameters

CONVERT Function

INSTR, LENGTH, and SUBSTR Functions and Character Sets

LIKE Conditions and Character Sets

Character Set SQL Functions

NLSSORT Function

Time/Date/Calendar Formats

Date Formats

Numeric Formats

Miscellaneous Topics

The Concatenation Operator

8 OCI Programming

Using the OCI NLS Functions

NLS Language Information Retrieval

OCINlsGetInfo

OCI_Nls_MaxBufSz

NLS Language Information Retrieval Sample Code

String Manipulation in OCI

OCIMultiByteToWideChar

OCIMultiByteInSizeToWideChar

OCIWideCharToMultiByte

OCIWideCharInSizeToMultiByte

OCIWideCharToLower

OCIWideCharToUpper

OCIWideCharStrcmp

OCIWideCharStrncmp

OCIWideCharStrcat

OCIWideCharStrchr

OCIWideCharStrcpy

OCIWideCharStrlen

OCIWideCharStrncat

OCIWideCharStrncpy

OCIWideCharStrrchr

OCIWideCharStrCaseConversion

OCIWideCharDisplayLength

OCIWideCharMultiByteLength

OCIMultiByteStrcmp

OCIMultiByteStrncmp

OCIMultiByteStrcat

OCIMultiByteStrcpy

OCIMultiByteStrlen

OCIMultiByteStrncat

OCIMultiByteStrncpy

OCIMultiByteStrnDisplayLength

OCIMultiByteStrCaseConversion

String Manipulation Sample Code

Character Classification in OCI

OCIWideCharIsAlnum

OCIWideCharIsAlpha

OCIWideCharIsCntrl

OCIWideCharIsDigit

OCIWideCharIsGraph

OCIWideCharIsLower

OCIWideCharIsPrint

OCIWideCharIsPunct

OCIWideCharIsSpace

OCIWideCharIsUpper

OCIWideCharIsXdigit

OCIWideCharIsSingleByte

Character Set Conversion in OCI

OCICharSetToUnicode

OCIUnicodeToCharSet

OCICharSetConversionIsReplacementUsed

Messaging Mechanism in OCI

OCIMessageOpen

OCIMessageGet

OCIMessageClose

LMSGEN

Text Message File Format

Message Example

9 Java Programming

Overview of Oracle9i Java Support

JDBC

Accessing SQL CHAR Datatypes Using JDBC

Accessing SQL NCHAR Datatypes Using JDBC

Using the oracle.sql.CHAR Class

Retrieving Data to oracle.sql.CHAR Class

NLS Restrictions

SQLJ

Using Unicode characters in SQLJ programs

Using the oracle.sql.NString class

Java Virtual Machine

Java Stored Procedures

Java Servlets and Java Server Pages

CORBA and EJB

CORBA ORB

Enterprise Java Beans

Configurations for Multilingual Applications

Configuring a Multilingual Database

Globalizing the Java Server Objects

Clients of Different Languages

Multilingual Demo Applications in SQLJ

The Database Schema

Java Stored Procedures

The SQLJ Client

10 Character Set Scanner Utility

Overview of Choosing and Migrating Character Sets

Data Truncation

Character Set Conversions

Database Character Set Migration

Data Scanning

Conversion of Data

What is the Character Set Scanner Utility?

Conversion Tests on Character Data

Access Privileges

Restrictions

Database Containing Data From Two or More Character Sets

Database Containing Data Not From the Database Character Set

Scan Modes in the Scanner

Full Database Scan

User Tables Scan

Single Table Scan

Using The Scanner

Before Using the Scanner

Compatibility

Invoking the Scanner

Getting Online Help for the Scanner

The Parameter File

Scanner Parameters

ARRAY

BOUNDARIES

CAPTURE

FEEDBACK

FROMCHAR

FROMNCHAR

FULL

HELP

LASTRPT

LOG

MAXBLOCKS

PARFILE

PROCESS

SUPPRESS

TABLE

TOCHAR

TONCHAR

USER

USERID

Sample Scanner Sessions

Sample Session of Full Database Scan

Sample Session of User Tables Scan

Sample Session of Single Table Scan

Scanner Reports

Database Scan Summary Report

Individual Exception Report

Storage and Performance Considerations in the Scanner

Storage Considerations

Performance Considerations

Scanner Utility Reference Material

Scanner Views

Scanner Messages

11 Oracle Locale Builder Utility

Overview of the Locale Builder Utility

Configuring Unicode Fonts for the Locale Builder

The Locale Builder Interface

Locale Builder General Screens

Restrictions

Setting the Language Definition with the Locale Builder

Setting the Territory Definition with the Locale Builder

Setting the Character Set Definition with the Locale Builder

Character Sets with User-Defined Characters

Oracle's Character Set Conversion Architecture

Unicode 3.1 Private Use Area

UDC Cross References

Character Set Definition File Conventions

Locale Builder Character Set Scenario

Sorting with the Locale Builder

Changing the Sort Order for Accented Characters

Changing the Sort Order for One Accented Character

Generating NLB Files

Using the New NLB Files

12 Customizing Locale Data

Customizing Character Sets

Character Set Customization Example

Using User-Defined Character Sets and Java

Customizing Time Zone Data

Customizing Calendars

NLS Calendar Utility

NLS Data Installation Utility

Syntax

Return Codes

Usage

A Locale Data

Languages

Translated Messages

Territories

Character Sets

Asian Language Character Sets

European Language Character Sets

Middle Eastern Language Character Sets

Universal Character Sets

Character Set Conversion Support

Subsets and Supersets

Linguistic Sorting

Calendar Systems

Obsolete Locale Data

AL24UTFFSS Character Set Desupport

B Unicode Character Code Assignments

Unicode Character Code Assignments

UTF-16 Encoding

UTF-8 Encoding

Glossary

Index