Contents

Title and Copyright Information

Send Us Your Comments

Preface

What's New in Globalization Support?

1 Overview of Globalization Support

Globalization Support Architecture

Locale Data on Demand

Architecture to Support Multilingual Applications

Using Unicode in a Multilingual Database

Globalization Support Features

Language Support

Territory Support

Date and Time Formats

Monetary and Numeric Formats

Calendars Feature

Linguistic Sorting

Character Set Support

Character Semantics

Customization of Locale and Calendar Data

Unicode Support

2 Choosing a Character Set

Character Set Encoding

What is an Encoded Character Set?

Which Characters Are Encoded?

What Characters Does a Character Set Support?

How are Characters Encoded?

Naming Convention for Oracle Character Sets

Length Semantics

Choosing an Oracle Database Character Set

Current and Future Language Requirements

Client Operating System and Application Compatibility

Character Set Conversion Between Clients and the Server

Performance Implications of Choosing a Database Character Set

Restrictions on Database Character Sets

Choosing a National Character Set

Summary of Supported Datatypes

Changing the Character Set After Database Creation

Monolingual Database Scenario

Character Set Conversion in a Monolingual Scenario

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 Environment Variable

Specifying the Value of NLS_LANG

Overriding Language and Territory Specifications

Should the NLS_LANG Setting Match the Database Character Set?

NLS Database Parameters

NLS Data Dictionary Views

NLS Dynamic Performance Views

OCINlsGetInfo() Function

Language and Territory Parameters

NLS_LANGUAGE

NLS_TERRITORY

Date and Time Parameters

Date Formats

Time Formats

Calendar Definitions

Calendar Formats

NLS_CALENDAR

Numeric Parameters

Numeric Formats

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS

Monetary Parameters

Currency Formats

NLS_CURRENCY

NLS_ISO_CURRENCY

NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY

Oracle Support for the Euro

NLS_MONETARY_CHARACTERS

NLS_CREDIT

NLS_DEBIT

Linguistic Sort Parameters

NLS_SORT

NLS_COMP

NLS_LIST_SEPARATOR

Character Set Conversion Parameter

NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP

Length Semantics

NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS

4 Linguistic Sorting

Overview of Oracle's Sorting Capabilities

Using Binary Sorts

Using Linguistic Sorts

Monolingual Linguistic Sorts

Multilingual Linguistic Sorts

Multilingual Sorting Levels

Linguistic Sort Examples

Linguistic Sort Features

Base Letters

Ignorable Characters

Contracting Characters

Expanding Characters

Context-Sensitive Characters

Canonical Equivalence

Reverse Secondary Sorting

Character Rearrangement for Thai and Laotian Characters

Special Letters

Special Combination Letters

Special Uppercase Letters

Special Lowercase Letters

Using Linguistic Indexes

Linguistic Indexes for Multiple Languages

Requirements for Using Linguistic Indexes

Improving Case-Insensitive Searches with a Function-Based Index

Performing a Generic Base Letter Search

5 Supporting Multilingual Databases with Unicode

Overview of Unicode

What is Unicode?

Supplementary Characters

Unicode Encodings

Oracle's Support for Unicode

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

Comparing Unicode Character Sets for Database and Datatype Solutions

Unicode Case Studies

Designing Database Schemas to Support Multiple Languages

Specifying Column Lengths for Multilingual Data

Storing Data in Multiple Languages

Storing Documents in Multiple Languages in LOBs

Creating Indexes for Searching Multilingual Document Contents

6 Programming with Unicode

Overview of Programming with Unicode

Database Access Product Stack and Unicode

SQL and PL/SQL Programming with Unicode

SQL NCHAR Datatypes

Implicit Datatype Conversion Between NCHAR and Other Datatypes

Exception Handling for Data Loss During Datatype Conversion

Rules for Implicit Datatype Conversion

SQL Functions for Unicode Datatypes

Other SQL Functions

Unicode String Literals

Using the UTL_FILE Package with NCHAR Data

OCI Programming with Unicode

OCIEnvNlsCreate() Function for Unicode Programming

OCI Unicode Code Conversion

When the NLS_LANG Character Set is 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

Pro*C/C++ Programming with Unicode

Pro*C/C++ Data Conversion in Unicode

Using the VARCHAR Datatype in Pro*C/C++

Using the NVARCHAR Datatype in Pro*C/C++

Using the UVARCHAR Datatype in Pro*C/C++

JDBC and SQLJ Programming with Unicode

Binding and Defining Java Strings in Unicode

Java Data Conversion in Unicode

ODBC and OLE DB Programming with Unicode

Unicode-Enabled Drivers in ODBC and OLE DB

OCI Dependency in Unicode

ODBC and OLE DB Code Conversion in Unicode

ODBC Unicode Datatypes

OLE DB Unicode Datatypes

ADO Access

7 SQL and PL/SQL Programming in a Global Environment

Locale-Dependent SQL Functions with Optional NLS Parameters

Default Values for NLS Parameters in SQL Functions

Specifying NLS Parameters in SQL Functions

Unacceptable NLS Parameters in SQL Functions

Other Locale-Dependent SQL Functions

The CONVERT Function

SQL Functions for Different Length Semantics

LIKE Conditions for Different Length Semantics

Character Set SQL Functions

The NLSSORT Function

Miscellaneous Topics for SQL and PL/SQL Programming in a Global Environment

SQL Date Format Masks

Calculating Week Numbers

SQL Numeric Format Masks

The Concatenation Operator

Loading External BFILE Data into LOBs

8 OCI Programming in a Global Environment

Using the OCI NLS Functions

Specifying Character Sets in OCI

OCIEnvNlsCreate()

Getting Locale Information in OCI

OCINlsGetInfo()

OCI_NLS_MAXBUFSZ

Example: Getting Locale Information in OCI

OCINlsCharSetNameTold()

OCINlsCharSetIdToName()

OCINlsNumericInfoGet()

OCINlsEnvironmentVariableGet()

Mapping Locale Information Between Oracle and Other Standards

OCINlsNameMap()

Manipulating Strings in OCI

OCIMultiByteToWideChar()

OCIMultiByteInSizeToWideChar()

OCIWideCharToMultiByte()

OCIWideCharInSizeToMultiByte()

OCIWideCharToLower()

OCIWideCharToUpper()

OCIWideCharStrcmp()

OCIWideCharStrncmp()

OCIWideCharStrcat()

OCIWideCharStrncat()

OCIWideCharStrchr()

OCIWideCharStrrchr()

OCIWideCharStrcpy()

OCIWideCharStrncpy()

OCIWideCharStrlen()

OCIWideCharStrCaseConversion()

OCIWideCharDisplayLength()

OCIWideCharMultiByteLength()

OCIMultiByteStrcmp()

OCIMultiByteStrncmp()

OCIMultiByteStrcat()

OCIMultiByteStrncat()

OCIMultiByteStrcpy()

OCIMultiByteStrncpy()

OCIMultiByteStrlen()

OCIMultiByteStrnDisplayLength()

OCIMultiByteStrCaseConversion()

Example: Manipulating Strings in OCI

Classifying Characters in OCI

OCIWideCharIsAlnum()

OCIWideCharIsAlpha()

OCIWideCharIsCntrl()

OCIWideCharIsDigit()

OCIWideCharIsGraph()

OCIWideCharIsLower()

OCIWideCharIsPrint()

OCIWideCharIsPunct()

OCIWideCharIsSpace()

OCIWideCharIsUpper()

OCIWideCharIsXdigit()

OCIWideCharIsSingleByte()

Example: Classifying Characters in OCI

Converting Character Sets in OCI

OCICharSetToUnicode()

OCIUnicodeToCharSet()

OCINlsCharSetConvert()

OCICharSetConversionIsReplacementUsed()

Example: Converting Character Sets in OCI

OCI Messaging Functions

OCIMessageOpen()

OCIMessageGet()

OCIMessageClose()

Example: Retrieving a Message from a Text Message File

lmsgen Utility

9 Java Programming in a Global Environment

Overview of Oracle9i Java Support

Globalization Support for JDBC Drivers

Accessing SQL CHAR Datatypes Using JDBC

Accessing SQL NCHAR Datatypes Using JDBC

Using the oracle.sql.CHAR Class

Restrictions on Accessing SQL CHAR Data with JDBC

Globalization Support for SQLJ

Using Unicode Characters in SQLJ programs

Using the oracle.sql.NString class

Globalization Support for Java Virtual Machine

Globalization Support for Java Stored Procedures

Configurations for Multilingual Applications

Configuring a Multilingual Database

Globalization Support for Java Stored Procedures

Clients with Different Languages

A Multilingual Demo Application in SQLJ

Database Schema for the Multilingual Demo Application

Java Stored Procedures for the Multilingual Demo Application

The SQLJ Client for the Multilingual Demo Application

10 Character Set Migration

Overview of Character Set Migration

Data Truncation

Character Set Conversion Issues

Changing the Database Character Set of an Existing Database

Migrating Character Data Using a Full Export and Import

Migrating Character Data Using the ALTER DATABASE CHARACTER SET
Statement

Migrating Character Data Using the ALTER DATABASE CHARACTER SET Statement
and Selective Imports

Migrating to the Oracle9i NCHAR Datatypes

Migrating Oracle8 NCHAR Columns to Oracle9i

Changing the National Character Set

Migrating CHAR Columns to NCHAR Columns in an Oracle9i Database

Tasks to Recover Database Schema After Character Set Migration

11 Character Set Scanner

What is the Character Set Scanner?

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 Character Set Scanner

Full Database Scan

User Scan

Table Scan

Using The Character Set Scanner

Before Using the Character Set Scanner

Character Set Scanner Compatibility

Invoking the Character Set Scanner

Getting Online Help for the Character Set Scanner

The Parameter File

Character Set Scanner Parameters

ARRAY Character Set Scanner Parameter

BOUNDARIES Character Set Scanner Parameter

CAPTURE Character Set Scanner Parameter

EXCLUDE Character Set Scanner Parameter

FEEDBACK Character Set Scanner Parameter

FROMCHAR Character Set Scanner Parameter

FROMNCHAR Character Set Scanner Parameter

FULL Character Set Scanner Parameter

HELP Character Set Scanner Parameter

LASTRPT Character Set Scanner Parameter

LOG Character Set Scanner Parameter

MAXBLOCKS Character Set Scanner Parameter

PARFILE Character Set Scanner Parameter

PRESERVE Character Set Scanner Parameter

PROCESS Character Set Scanner Parameter

SUPPRESS Character Set Scanner Parameter

TABLE Character Set Scanner Parameter

TOCHAR Character Set Scanner Parameter

TONCHAR Character Set Scanner Parameter

USER Character Set Scanner Parameter

USERID Character Set Scanner Parameter

Examples: Character Set Scanner Sessions

Example: Full Database Scan

Example: User Scan

Example: Single Table Scan

Character Set Scanner Reports

Database Scan Summary Report

Individual Exception Report

Storage and Performance Considerations in the Character Set Scanner

Storage Considerations

Performance Considerations

Character Set Scanner Views and Messages

Character Set Scanner Views

Character Set Scanner Error Messages

12 Customizing Locale Data

Overview of the Oracle Locale Builder Utility

Configuring Unicode Fonts for the Oracle Locale Builder

The Oracle Locale Builder User Interface

Oracle Locale Builder Screens and Dialog Boxes

Creating a New Language Definition with the Oracle Locale Builder

Creating a New Territory Definition with the Oracle Locale Builder

Customizing Time Zone Data

Customizing Calendars with the NLS Calendar Utility

Displaying a Code Chart with the Oracle Locale Builder

Creating a New Character Set Definition with the Oracle Locale Builder

Character Sets with User-Defined Characters

Oracle Character Set Conversion Architecture

Unicode 3.1 Private Use Area

User-Defined Character Cross-References Between Character Sets

Guidelines for Creating a New Character Set from an Existing Character Set

Example: Creating a New Character Set Definition with the Oracle Locale Builder

Supporting User-Defined Characters in Java

Creating a New Linguistic Sort with the Oracle Locale Builder

Changing the Sort Order for All Characters with the Same Diacritic

Changing the Sort Order for One Character with a Diacritic

Generating and Installing NLB Files

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 Desupported

Bengali Language Definition Deprecated

Czechoslovakia Territory Definition Deprecated

B Unicode Character Code Assignments

Unicode Code Ranges

UTF-16 Encoding

UTF-8 Encoding

Glossary

Index