Globalization Support in the Directory, 2 of 7

The NLS_LANG Environment Variable

The NLS_LANG parameter has three components--language, territory, and charset--in the form:

NLS_LANG = language_territory.charset

Each component controls the operation of a subset of Globalization Support features.

Component Description

language

Specifies conventions such as the language used for Oracle messages, day names, and month names. Each supported language has a unique name--for example, American English, French, or German. The language argument specifies default values for the territory and character set arguments, so either (or both) territory or charset can be omitted.
If language is not specified, the value defaults to American English.
See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of languages

territory

Specifies conventions such as the default calendar, collation, date, monetary, and numeric formats. Each supported territory has a unique name; for example, America, France, or Canada.
If territory is not specified, the value defaults to America.
See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of territories

charset

Specifies the character set used by the client application (normally that of the user's terminal). Each supported character set has a unique acronym, for example, US7ASCII, WE8ISO8859P1, WE8DEC, WE8EBCDIC500, or JA16EUC. Each language has a default character set associated with it. Default values for the languages available on your system are listed in your operating system installation guide or administrator's guide.
See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of character sets

Component	Description
language	Specifies conventions such as the language used for Oracle messages, day names, and month names. Each supported language has a unique name--for example, American English, French, or German. The language argument specifies default values for the territory and character set arguments, so either (or both) `territory` or `charset` can be omitted. If language is not specified, the value defaults to American English. See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of languages
territory	Specifies conventions such as the default calendar, collation, date, monetary, and numeric formats. Each supported territory has a unique name; for example, America, France, or Canada. If territory is not specified, the value defaults to America. See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of territories
charset	Specifies the character set used by the client application (normally that of the user's terminal). Each supported character set has a unique acronym, for example, US7ASCII, WE8ISO8859P1, WE8DEC, WE8EBCDIC500, or JA16EUC. Each language has a default character set associated with it. Default values for the languages available on your system are listed in your operating system installation guide or administrator's guide. See Also: Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide in the Oracle Database Documentation Library for a complete list of character sets

Note:
All components of the NLS_LANG definition are optional, that is, any item left out will default.
Also, if you specify territory or charset, you must include the preceding delimiter [underscore ( _ ) for territory, and
period ( . ) for charset], otherwise the entire value will be parsed as a language name.

You can set NLS_LANG as an environment variable at the command line. The following are examples of legal values for NLS_LANG:

AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8
JAPANESE_JAPAN.AL32UTF8