C
National Language Support

This appendix describes National Language Support (NLS).

Specific topics discussed are:

• NLS_LANG Parameters

• Commonly Used Values for NLS_LANG

• NLS_LANG Settings in MS-DOS Mode and Batch Mode

NLS_LANG Parameters

Oracle8i for Windows NT provides NLS that enables users to interact with a database in their own language, as defined by the NLS_LANG parameter. When you install Oracle8i for Windows NT, the NLS_LANG parameter is registered by the Net8 Client installation script.

The default value of the NLS_LANG parameter at installation is either that of the existing NLS_LANG parameter of the currently selected Oracle home, or of the default language of the operating system. The default language 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.

See Also: Appendix C of Oracle8i Administrator's Guide for Windows NT for more information on the subkey locations for multiple Oracle homes

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.

See Also: Oracle8i National Language Support Guide for information on the NLS_LANG parameter and NLS initialization parameters

Commonly Used Values for NLS_LANG

The following table lists commonly used NLS_LANG values for various languages:

Language	NLS_LANG Value
Arabic	ARABIC_UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.AR8MSWIN1256
Brazilian Portuguese	BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE_BRAZIL.WE8ISO8859P1
Bulgarian	BULGARIAN_BULGARIA.CL8MSWIN1251
Canadian French	CANADIAN FRENCH_CANADA.WE8ISO8859P1
Catalan	CATALAN_CATALONIA.WE8ISO8859P1
Croatian	CROATIAN_CROATIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Czech	CZECH_CZECH REPUBLIC.EE8MSWIN1250
Danish	DANISH_DENMARK.WE8ISO8859P1
Dutch	DUTCH_THE NETHERLANDS.WE8ISO8859P1
Egyptian	ARABIC_UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.AR8MSWIN1256
English	AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1
English (United Kingdom)	ENGLISH_UNITED KINGDOM.WE8ISO8859P1
Estonian	ESTONIAN_ESTONIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Finnish	FINNISH_FINLAND.WE8ISO8859P1
French	FRENCH_FRANCE.WE8ISO8859P1
German	GERMAN_GERMANY.WE8ISO8859P1
Greek	GREEK_GREECE.EL8MSWIN1253
Hebrew	HEBREW_ISRAEL.IW8MSWIN1255
Hungarian	HUNGARIAN_HUNGARY.EE8MSWIN1250
Icelandic	ICELANDIC_ICELAND.WE8ISO8859P1
Indonesian	INDONESIAN_INDONESIA.WE8ISO8859P1
Italian	ITALIAN_ITALY.WE8ISO8859P1
Japanese	JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS
Korean	KOREAN_KOREA.KO16KSC5601
Latin American Spanish	LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1
Latvian	LATVIAN_LATVIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Lithuanian	LITHUANIAN_LITHUANIA.BLT8MSWIN1257
Mexican Spanish	MEXICAN SPANISH_MEXICO.WE8ISO8859P1
Norwegian	NORWEGIAN_NORWAY.WE8ISO8859P1
Polish	POLISH_POLAND.EE8MSWIN1250
Portuguese	PORTUGUESE_PORTUGAL.WE8ISO8859P1
Romanian	ROMANIAN_ROMANIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Russian	RUSSIAN_CIS.CL8MSWIN1251
Simplified Chinese	SIMPLIFIED CHINESE_CHINA.ZHS16GBK
Slovak	SLOVAK_SLOVAKIA.EE8MSWIN1250
Spanish	SPANISH_SPAIN.WE8ISO8859P1
Swedish	SWEDISH_SWEDEN.WE8ISO8859P1
Thai	THAI_THAILAND.TH8TISASCII
Traditional Chinese	TRADITIONAL CHINESE_TAIWAN.ZHT16BIG5
Turkish	TURKISH_TURKEY.WE8ISO8859P9
Ukrainian	UKRAINIAN_UKRAINE.CL8MSWIN1251
Vietnamese	VIETNAMESE_VIETNAM.VN8VN3
Others	AMERICAN_AMERICA.US7ASCII

NLS_LANG Settings in MS-DOS Mode and Batch Mode

When using 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.

This is required because MS-DOS mode uses, with a few exceptions, a different character set (or code-page), for example, OEM 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 OEM code-page is identical to the ANSI code-page. In this case, there is no need to set the NLS_LANG in MS-DOS mode.

Similarly, in batch mode, set the correct character set value of the 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.

The following table lists the Oracle character sets that correspond to the OEM primary code-page in MS-DOS mode for each of the supported languages:

Language	Character Set
Arabic	AR8ASMO8X
Brazilian Portuguese	WE8PC850
Catalan	WE8PC850
Czech	EE8PC852
Danish	WE8PC850
Dutch	WE8PC850
English	US8PC437
Finnish	WE8PC850
French	WE8PC850
German	WE8PC850
Greek	EL8PC737
Hungarian	EE8PC852
Italian	WE8PC850
Japanese	JA16SJIS
Korean	KO16KSC5601
Latin American Spanish	WE8PC850
Norwegian	WE8PC850
Polish	EE8PC852
Portuguese	WE8PC850
Romanian	EE8PC852
Russian	RU8PC866
Simplified Chinese	ZHS16GBK
Slovak	EE8PC852
Slovenian	EE8PC852
Spanish	WE8PC850
Swedish	WE8PC850
Traditional Chinese	ZHT16BIG5
Turkish	TR8PC857