C Globalization Support

This appendix describes Globalization Support.

This appendix contains these topics:

About NLS_LANG Parameters
Commonly Used Values for NLS_LANG
NLS_LANG Settings in MS-DOS Mode and Batch Mode

About NLS_LANG Parameters

Oracle provides Globalization Support that enables users to interact with a database in their own language, as defined by the NLS_LANG parameter. When you install Oracle9i components, the NLS_LANG parameter is set in the registry.

The default value of the NLS_LANG parameter at installation is automatically chosen based on the locale setting of the operating system. The operating system locale and NLS_LANG value mappings are listed under "Commonly Used Values for NLS_LANG".

The NLS_LANG parameter is stored in the registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEID\NLS_LANG subkey, where ID is the unique number identifying the Oracle home.

The NLS_LANG parameter uses the following format:

NLS_LANG = LANGUAGE_TERRITORY.CHARACTER_SET

where:

`LANGUAGE`	Specifies the language and conventions for displaying messages, day name, and month name.
`TERRITORY`	Specifies the territory and conventions for calculating week and day numbers.
`CHARACTER_SET`	Controls the character set used for displaying messages.

Commonly Used Values for NLS_LANG

Table C-1 lists commonly used NLS_LANG values for various operating system locales:

Table C-1 NLS_LANG Parameter Values

Operating System Locale	NLS_LANG Value
Arabic (U.A.E.)	ARABIC_UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.AR8MSWIN1256
Bulgarian	BULGARIAN_BULGARIA.CL8MSWIN1251
Catalan	CATALAN_CATALONIA.WE8MSWIN1252
Chinese (PRC)	SIMPLIFIED CHINESE_CHINA.ZHS16GBK
Chinese (Taiwan)	TRADITIONAL CHINESE_TAIWAN.ZHT16MSWIN950
Croatian	CROATIAN_CROATIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Czech	CZECH_CZECH REPUBLIC.EE8MSWIN1250
Danish	DANISH_DENMARK.WE8MSWIN1252
Dutch (Netherlands)	DUTCH_THE NETHERLANDS.WE8MSWIN1252
English (United Kingdom)	ENGLISH_UNITED KINGDOM.WE8MSWIN1252
English (United States)	AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252
Estonian	ESTONIAN_ESTONIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Finnish	FINNISH_FINLAND.WE8MSWIN1252
French (Canada)	CANADIAN FRENCH_CANADA.WE8MSWIN1252
French (France)	FRENCH_FRANCE.WE8MSWIN1252
German (Germany)	GERMAN_GERMANY.WE8MSWIN1252
Greek	GREEK_GREECE.EL8MSWIN1253
Hebrew	HEBREW_ISRAEL.IW8MSWIN1255
Hungarian	HUNGARIAN_HUNGARY.EE8MSWIN1250
Icelandic	ICELANDIC_ICELAND.WE8MSWIN1252
Indonesian	INDONESIAN_INDONESIA.WE8MSWIN1252
Italian (Italy)	ITALIAN_ITALY.WE8MSWIN1252
Japanese	JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS
Korean	KOREAN_KOREA.KO16MSWIN949
Latvian	LATVIAN_LATVIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Lithuanian	LITHUANIAN_LITHUANIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Norwegian	NORWEGIAN_NORWAY.WE8MSWIN1252
Polish	POLISH_POLAND.EE8MSWIN1250
Portuguese (Brazil)	BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE_BRAZIL.WE8MSWIN1252
Portuguese (Portugal)	PORTUGUESE_PORTUGAL.WE8MSWIN1252
Romanian	ROMANIAN_ROMANIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Russian	RUSSIAN_CIS.CL8MSWIN1251
Slovak	SLOVAK_SLOVAKIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Spanish (Spain)	SPANISH_SPAIN.WE8MSWIN1252
Swedish	SWEDISH_SWEDEN.WE8MSWIN1252
Thai	THAI_THAILAND.TH8TISASCII
Spanish (Mexico)	MEXICAN SPANISH_MEXICO.WE8MSWIN1252
Spanish (Venezuela)	LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH_VENEZUELA.WE8MSWIN1252
Turkish	TURKISH_TURKEY.TR8MSWIN1254
Ukrainian	UKRAINIAN_UKRAINE.CL8MSWIN1251
Vietnamese	VIETNAMESE_VIETNAM.VN8MSWIN1258

NLS_LANG Settings in MS-DOS Mode and Batch Mode

When using the Oracle Internet Directory command line tools and Oracle utilities such as SQL*Plus, SQL Loader, Import, and Export in MS-DOS mode, the character set field of the NLS_LANG parameter for the session must first be set to the correct value.

Note:

Oracle Internet Directory command line tools are run from the MS-DOS command prompt. You do not need a UNIX emulation utility for Windows to run these tools. An emulation utility is only required for running Oracle Internet Directory's shell script tools. See Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for more information.

This is required because MS-DOS mode uses, with a few exceptions, a different character set (or code-page) from Windows (ANSI code-page), and the default Oracle home NLS_LANG parameter in the registry is always set to the appropriate Windows code-page. If the NLS_LANG parameter for the MS-DOS mode session is not set appropriately, error messages and data can be corrupted due to incorrect character set conversion.

For Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese, the MS-DOS code-page is identical to the ANSI code-page. In this case, there is no need to set the NLS_LANG parameter in MS-DOS mode.

Similarly, in batch mode, set the correct character set value of NLS_LANG by inserting a SET NLS_LANG command at the start of the batch procedure, according to the character set of the files to be processed in the procedure.

Table C-2 lists the Oracle character sets that correspond to the MS-DOS mode for various operating system locales:

Table C-2 Oracle Character Sets for Operating System Locales

Operating System Locale	Character Set
Arabic	AR8ASMO8X
Catalan	WE8PC850
Chinese (PRC)	ZHS16GBK
Chinese (Taiwan)	ZHT16MSWIN950
Czech	EE8PC852
Danish	WE8PC850
Dutch	WE8PC850
English (United Kingdom)	WE8PC850
English (United States)	US8PC437
Finnish	WE8PC850
French	WE8PC850
German	WE8PC850
Greek	EL8PC737
Hungarian	EE8PC852
Italian	WE8PC850
Japanese	JA16SJIS
Korean	KO16MSWIN949
Norwegian	WE8PC850
Polish	EE8PC852
Portuguese	WE8PC850
Romanian	EE8PC852
Russian	RU8PC866
Slovak	EE8PC852
Slovenian	EE8PC852
Spanish	WE8PC850
Swedish	WE8PC850
Turkish	TR8PC857