19 NLS and Globalization Support

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NLS and Globalization

Support

NLS and Globalization

Support


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Copyright 2002 Solutions IT services. All rights reserved

Features in Globalization SupportFeatures in Globalization Support

Language support

Character set support

Linguistic (Language based) sorting

Territory/locale supportMessage support

Date and time formats

Calendar support

Numeric formats

Monetary formats


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Different Types

of Encoding Formats

Different Types

of Encoding FormatsOracle supports various classes of character

Encoding Format:

Single-byte character sets

7-bit per Character

8-bit per Character

Varying-width multibyte character sets

Fixed-width multibyte character sets

Unicode (AL32UFT8, AL16UTF16, UTF8)


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Database Character Sets and

National Character Sets

Database Character Sets and

National Character SetsDatabase Character Sets National Character Sets

Defined at database creation

time

Defined at database creation

time

May not be change without

re-creating database

May not be changed without

re-creating database

Store data columns of typeCHAR,VARCHAR2, CLOB, LONG

Store data columns of typeNCHAR,NVARCHAR2,NCLOB

Can store varying-widthcharacter sets Can store Unicode usingeither AL16UTF16 or UTF8


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Considerations for Choosing an

OracleDatabase Character Set


OracleDatabase Character SetWhat language does the database need to

support?

What are interoperability concerns with system

resources and applications?

What are the performance implications?

What are the restrictions?

What language does the database need to

support?

What are interoperability concerns with system

resources and applications?

What are the performance implications?

What are the restrictions?


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Oracle National Character Set


Oracle National Character SetTwo choices

AL16UTF16 (default) [ fixed width 2 bytes ]

UTF8 [ variable width 1-3 bytes ]

Is space an issue? (Use AL16UTF16 for American

and Europian and use UTF8 for Asian)

Is performance an issue? (Use fixed width

Character set AL16UTF16)

Two choices

AL16UTF16 (default) [ fixed width 2 bytes ]

UTF8 [ variable width 1-3 bytes ]

Is space an issue? (Use AL16UTF16 for American

and Europian and use UTF8 for Asian)

Is performance an issue? (Use fixed width

Character set AL16UTF16)


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12

Choosing a Unicode Solution

UnicodeDatabase


UnicodeDatabaseWhen to Use a Unicode Database?

Databases for web

Easy code migration for Java or PL/SQL

Easy data migration from ASCII based dataEvenly distributed multilingual data

InterMedia Text Search usage


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UnicodeDatatype


UnicodeDatatypeWhen to use a Unicode datatype?

Adding multilingual support incrementally (withoutmigrating)

Packaged applications to work with any character set onthe client database

Performance

Single byte database character set with a fixed widthnational character set

Better support for UTF-16 with windows clients

Note: Preferably use NCHAR datatype


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Specifying Language-Dependent

Behavior


Behavior

Initialization parameters

Environment variables

ALTER SESSION

COMMAND

High

Low

P

re

c

e

d

e

n

c

e


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Behavior for the Server


Behavior for the ServerNLS_LANGUAGE specifies:

The language for messages coming from database

Names of Day and month

Symbols for A.D, B.C, A.M, P.M.The default sorting mechanism

NLS_TERRITORY specifies:

Numbering of Days and weeks

Default date format, decimal character,group separator character, and the default ISOand local currency symbols

Default calendar


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Dependent Language and

TerritoryDefault Values

Dependent Language and

TerritoryDefault Values

AMERICA$

AMERICADD-MON-RR

,.GREGORIAN

NLS_TERRITORYNLS_CURRENCYNLS_ISO_CURRENCYNLS_DATE_FORMAT

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERSNLS_CALENDAR

AMERICAN

AMERICANBINARY

NLS_LANGUAGE

NLS_DATE_LANGUAGENLS_SORT

DEFAULT VALUESPARAMETER


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Behavior for the Session


Behavior for the SessionEnvironment variable:

NLS_LANG = _.

e.g.: NLS_LANG = French_France.UTF8

Additional environment variables:NLS_DATE_FORMAT

NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE

NLS_SORT

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS

NLS_CURRENCY

NLS_ISO_CURRENCY

NLS_CALENDAR

NLS_TIME_FORMAT

NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT


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Character Sets

in Client-Server Architecture

Character Sets

in Client-Server ArchitectureCREATE DATABASE ...

CHARACTER SET

NATIONAL CHARACTER SET

...

NLS_LANG=_.

NLS_NCHAR=


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ALTER SESSION SET NLS_DATE_FORMAT=DD.MM.YYYY;

DBMS_SESSION.SET_NLS(NLS_DATE_FORMAT,

DD.MM.YYYY) ;


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Linguistic SortingLinguistic SortingOracle supports three types of sorting

Binary sorting

Sorted according to the binary values of the

encoded charactersMonolingual sorting

Sorts are done in two passes

Based on the character's assigned major and minorvalues

Multilingual sorting Based on the new ISO 14651 standards and,

Unicode 3.0 Standard for multilingual collation


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NLS SortingNLS SortingNLS_SORT specifies which type of sort is to be

done for character data

Is governed by theNLS_LANG environment variable

can be specified directly at the session level

NLSSORT function

Specifies the type of sort for character data within a

query


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Using NLS Parameters

in SQL Functions

Using NLS Parameters

in SQL FunctionsSELECT TO_CHAR(hire_date,DD.Month.YYYY,

NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE=GERMAN)

FROM scott.emp;

SELECT first_name, TO_CHAR(salary,9G999D99,NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS=,.)

FROM scott.emp;


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Linguistic Indexing SupportLinguistic Indexing Support

Language based indexing

High performance with local sorting

NLS_COMP parameter can be used for linguisticcomparisons

CREATE INDEX list_word ONlist (NLSSORT(word, NLS_SORT = French));


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Import and LoadingData

Using NLS********go to mod 2

Import and LoadingData

Using NLS********go to mod 2Data will be converted from export file character

set to the database character set during the

import.

LOADER: Conventional: Data is converted into the session

character set specified byNLS_LANG.

DIRECT: Data is converted directly into the database

character set.


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Obtaining Information

About Character Sets


About Character SetsNLS_DATABASE_PARAMETERS:

PARAMETER(NLS_CHARACTERSET,NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET)

VALUE


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About NLS Settings


About NLS SettingsNLS_INSTANCE_PARAMETERS:

PARAMETER(initialization parameters that have

been explicitly set)

VALUENLS_SESSION_PARAMETERS:

PARAMETER(session parameters)

VALUE


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Obtaining Information About

NLS and Globalization Support

Obtaining Information About

NLS and Globalization SupportDynamic Performance Views :

V$NLS_VALID_VALUES:

PARAMETER

(LANGUAGE, SORT, TERRITORY, CHARACTERSET)VALUE : All acceptable valid values for the parameter

V$NLS_PARAMETERS:

PARAMETER(NLS session parameters,NLS_CHARACTERSET)

VALUE : current values for the parameter


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Globalization Support

Utilities

Globalization Support

UtilitiesCharacter Set Scanner

Scans the database to determine whether the

character set can successfully be changed

Reports are provided having detailed possible

problems and their rectifications

Oracle Locale Builder

Easy to operate graphical interface

For viewing and modifying existing localedefinitions and creating new ones


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SummarySummary

In this lesson, you should have learned to:

Choose a database character set and a national

character set for the database

Outline the pros and cons of different availableencoding formats

Use the various types of National Language

Support parameters for the server, or the session

Outline the usage of Globalization Support Utilities

Obtain the NLS and Globalization information of

the database

In this lesson, you should have learned to:

Choose a database character set and a national

character set for the database

Outline the pros and cons of different availableencoding formats

Use the various types of National Language

Support parameters for the server, or the session

Outline the usage of Globalization Support Utilities

Obtain the NLS and Globalization information of

the database


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Practice 19 Overview

This practice covers the following topics:

Checking the database and national character set

Identifying valid NLS values

Setting NLS parameters


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Documents

19 NLS and Globalization Support