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Oracle® Database Installation Guide
10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit)

Part Number B14316-03
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E Configuring Oracle Database Globalization Support

This appendix describes the following Globalization Support topics:

E.1 Installing and Using Oracle Components in Different Languages

This section describes the following features:

E.1.1 Running Oracle Universal Installer in Different Languages

Oracle Universal Installer runs by default in the selected language of your operating system. You can run Oracle Universal Installer in the following additional languages:

  • Brazilian Portuguese

  • German

  • Japanese

  • Simplified Chinese

  • Traditional Chinese

  • French

  • Italian

  • Korean

  • Spanish

To run Oracle Universal Installer in a different language:

  1. Change the language in which your operating system is running. For example, on Windows 2000:

    1. From the Start menu, select Settings, then Control Panel, and then Regional Options.

    2. In the Settings for the current user and the Language settings for the system areas, select a language from the preceding list.

    3. Click OK.

  2. Run Oracle Universal Installer by following the instructions in the "Installing the Oracle Database Software" section.

    Note:

    The selected language is assigned to the NLS_LANG registry parameter.

E.1.2 Using Oracle Components in Different Languages

You can select other languages in which to use Oracle components (such as Oracle Net Configuration Assistant and Oracle Database Configuration Assistant). Note that this does not change the language in which Oracle Universal Installer is run. For the Oracle component to run in the selected language, it must be the same as the language set for your operating system. You can change your operating system language in the Regional Settings window from the Control Panel.

To use components in different languages:

  1. Follow the instructions in the "Installing the Oracle Database Software" section to start Oracle Universal Installer.

  2. In the Select Installation Type window, click the Product Languages button.

    The Language Selection window appears.

  3. Select a language in which to use Oracle components from the Available Languages field.

  4. Use the arrow (>) to move the language to the Selected Languages field, and click OK.

  5. Select the appropriate products for your installation and click Next.

    After the installation is complete, the dialog box wording, messages, and online Help for the installed components will display in the language that you selected.

E.2 Configuring Locale and Character Sets with the NLS_LANG Parameter

This section covers the following topics:

E.2.1 About the NLS_LANG Parameter

Oracle provides Globalization Support that enables users to interact with a database in their preferred locale and character set settings, as defined by the NLS_LANG parameter. When you install Oracle Database components, Oracle Universal Installer sets the NLS_LANG parameter in the registry.

The locale setting of your operating system determines the value of the NLS_LANG parameter at installation. Table E-1 lists the operating system locale and NLS_LANG value mappings.

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.

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: Specifies the encoding of the database client, which is the character set for data entered or displayed by a client program.

Caution:

AL32UTF8 is the Oracle Database character set that is appropriate for XMLType data. It is equivalent to the IANA registered standard UTF-8 encoding, which supports all valid XML characters.

Do not confuse Oracle Database database character set UTF8 (no hyphen) with database character set AL32UTF8 or with character encoding UTF-8. Database character set UTF8 has been superseded by AL32UTF8. Do not use UTF8 for XML data. UTF8 supports only Unicode version 3.1 and earlier; it does not support all valid XML characters. AL32UTF8 has no such limitation.

Using database character set UTF8 for XML data could cause a fatal error or affect security negatively. If a character that is not supported by the database character set appears in an input-document element name, a replacement character (usually a question mark) is substituted for it. This will terminate parsing and raise an exception.

See Also:

  • Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit) for more information about the subkey locations for multiple Oracle homes

  • Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (64-Bit) on Intel Itanium for more information about the subkey locations for multiple Oracle homes

  • Oracle Database Platform Guide for Microsoft Windows (x64) for more information about the subkey locations for multiple Oracle homes

  • Oracle Database Globalization Support Guide for information about the NLS_LANG parameter and Globalization Support initialization parameters

E.2.2 Default Values for NLS_LANG

Table E-1 lists the default NLS_LANG values for various Windows locales.

Table E-1 NLS_LANG Parameter Values

Operating System Locale NLS_LANG Value

Arabic (U.A.E.)

ARABIC_UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.AR8MSWIN1256

Bulgarian

BULGARIAN_BULGARIA.CL8MSWIN1251

Catalan

CATALAN_CATALONIA.WE8MSWIN1252

Chinese (PRC)

SIMPLIFIED CHINESE_CHINA.ZHS16GBK

Chinese (Taiwan)

TRADITIONAL CHINESE_TAIWAN.ZHT16MSWIN950

Croatian

CROATIAN_CROATIA.EE8MSWIN1250

Czech

CZECH_CZECH REPUBLIC.EE8MSWIN1250

Danish

DANISH_DENMARK.WE8MSWIN1252

Dutch (Netherlands)

DUTCH_THE NETHERLANDS.WE8MSWIN1252

English (United Kingdom)

ENGLISH_UNITED KINGDOM.WE8MSWIN1252

English (United States)

AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252

Estonian

ESTONIAN_ESTONIA.BLT8MSWIN1257

Finnish

FINNISH_FINLAND.WE8MSWIN1252

French (Canada)

CANADIAN FRENCH_CANADA.WE8MSWIN1252

French (France)

FRENCH_FRANCE.WE8MSWIN1252

German (Germany)

GERMAN_GERMANY.WE8MSWIN1252

Greek

GREEK_GREECE.EL8MSWIN1253

Hebrew

HEBREW_ISRAEL.IW8MSWIN1255

Hungarian

HUNGARIAN_HUNGARY.EE8MSWIN1250

Icelandic

ICELANDIC_ICELAND.WE8MSWIN1252

Indonesian

INDONESIAN_INDONESIA.WE8MSWIN1252

Italian (Italy)

ITALIAN_ITALY.WE8MSWIN1252

Japanese

JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS

Korean

KOREAN_KOREA.KO16MSWIN949

Latvian

LATVIAN_LATVIA.BLT8MSWIN1257

Lithuanian

LITHUANIAN_LITHUANIA.BLT8MSWIN1257

Norwegian

NORWEGIAN_NORWAY.WE8MSWIN1252

Polish

POLISH_POLAND.EE8MSWIN1250

Portuguese (Brazil)

BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE_BRAZIL.WE8MSWIN1252

Portuguese (Portugal)

PORTUGUESE_PORTUGAL.WE8MSWIN1252

Romanian

ROMANIAN_ROMANIA.EE8MSWIN1250

Russian

RUSSIAN_RUSSIA.CL8MSWIN1251

Slovak

SLOVAK_SLOVAKIA.EE8MSWIN1250

Spanish (Spain)

SPANISH_SPAIN.WE8MSWIN1252

Swedish

SWEDISH_SWEDEN.WE8MSWIN1252

Thai

THAI_THAILAND.TH8TISASCII

Spanish (Mexico)

MEXICAN SPANISH_MEXICO.WE8MSWIN1252

Spanish (Venezuela)

LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH_VENEZUELA.WE8MSWIN1252

Turkish

TURKISH_TURKEY.TR8MSWIN1254

Ukrainian

UKRAINIAN_UKRAINE.CL8MSWIN1251

Vietnamese

VIETNAMESE_VIETNAM.VN8MSWIN1258


E.2.3 NLS_LANG Settings in MS-DOS Mode and Batch Mode

Before you can use Oracle utilities such as SQL*Plus, SQL Loader, Import, and Export in MS-DOS mode, make sure that you have set the character set field of the NLS_LANG parameter for the session to the correct value.

This is required because MS-DOS mode uses, with a few exceptions, a different character set (or 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 you do not set the NLS_LANG parameter for the MS-DOS mode session correctly, incorrect character conversion can corrupt error messages and data.

For Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese, the MS-DOS code-page is identical to the ANSI code-page. In this case, you do not need to set the NLS_LANG parameter in MS-DOS mode.

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.

Table E-2 lists the Oracle character sets that correspond to the MS-DOS mode for various operating system locales.

Table E-2 Oracle Character Sets for Operating System Locales

Operating System Locale Character Set

Arabic

AR8ASMO8X

Catalan

WE8PC850

Chinese (PRC)

ZHS16GBK

Chinese (Taiwan)

ZHT16MSWIN950

Czech

EE8PC852

Danish

WE8PC850

Dutch

WE8PC850

English (United Kingdom)

WE8PC850

English (United States)

US8PC437

Finnish

WE8PC850

French

WE8PC850

German

WE8PC850

Greek

EL8PC737

Hungarian

EE8PC852

Italian

WE8PC850

Japanese

JA16SJIS

Korean

KO16MSWIN949

Norwegian

WE8PC850

Polish

EE8PC852

Portuguese

WE8PC850

Romanian

EE8PC852

Russian

RU8PC866

Slovak

EE8PC852

Slovenian

EE8PC852

Spanish

WE8PC850

Swedish

WE8PC850

Turkish

TR8PC857


See Also:

"Globalization Support in the Directory" in Oracle Internet Directory Administrator's Guide for Oracle Internet Directory Globalization Support issues and required NLS_LANG environment variables for the various components and tools in an Oracle Internet Directory environment