NLS_LANG Settings in Console Mode and Batch Mode

Before you can use Oracle utilities such as SQL*Plus, SQL Loader, Import, and Export from the command prompt, you may have to set the character set in the parameter NLS_LANG to a different value from the one used in the registry.

You may need to set a different character set for console mode utilities, because programs running in console mode use, with a few exceptions, a different code page (character set) from programs running in GUI mode. The default Oracle home NLS_LANG parameter in the Registry is always set to the appropriate GUI code page. If you do not set the NLS_LANG parameter for the console mode session correctly, incorrect character conversion can corrupt error messages and data.

For Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese, the console (OEM) code page is identical to the GUI (ANSI) code page. In this case, you are not required to set the NLS_LANG parameter. For other languages, set the correct character set value of NLS_LANG by issuing a SET NLS_LANG command in the same Command Prompt window in which you want to start the affected utility.

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.

To find the current console code page, issue the CHCP command in the Command Prompt window. Use the reported code page number to look up the corresponding Oracle character set name in the following table:

Table 7-1 Oracle Character Sets for Console Mode (OEM) Code Pages

OEM Code Page Oracle Character Set for Console Mode

437 (US)

US8PC437

737 (Greek)

EL8PC737

775 (Baltic)

BLT8PC775

850 (Multilingual Latin I)

WE8PC850

852 (Latin II)

EE8PC852

855 (Cyrillic)

RU8PC855

857 (Turkish)

TR8PC857

858 (Multilingual Latin I + Euro)

WE8PC858

866 (Russian)

RU8PC866

874 (Thai)

TH8TISASCII

932 (Japanese Shift-JIS)

JA16SJISTILDE

936 (Simplified Chinese GBK)

ZHS16GBK

949 (Korean)

KO16MSWIN949

950 (Traditional Chinese Big5)

ZHT16MSWIN950

1258 (Vietnam)

VN8MSWIN1258