E Configuring Oracle Database Globalization Support

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.2.1 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.

E.2.2 Default Values for NLS_LANG

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

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.