NLS_Charset

Description

Specifies the client-side character set for the current environment handle.

Applies to

Syntax

NLS_Charset='value'

Parameter

Description

value

Specifies the client-side character set for the current environment handle. Values are:

  • Unicode (Default) The OCI client uses the UTF-16 character set. When connecting to EAServer with a connection cache, the cache’s database driver type must be OCI_9U.

  • Local The OCI client uses the current character set defined by the NLS_LANG parameter on the local computer. When connecting to EAServer with a connection cache, the cache’s database driver type must be OCI_9.

  • ValidCharsetName Any valid character set name except AL16UTF16. To specify a value in the Database Profile Setup dialog box, type the name of the character set into the NLS Charset drop-down list box on the System page.

Default

NLS_Charset='Unicode'

Usage

When you specify a value for NLS_Charset, PowerBuilder sets the OCI NLS_CHARACTERSET property in the current connection. NLS_CHARACTERSET is a database parameter that specifies the character set encoding used to store CHAR, VARCHAR2, LONG, and CLOB datatypes. The value you set corresponds to the character set defined by the NLS_LANG client-side parameter. NLS_LANG defines the character set encoding of text that OCI gets from or sends to applications in bind or define variables or as SQL statements to be executed by the server.

Reviewers   Author comment:  HF - 3/3 Check the following - changed sentence plus added sentences.

For the national character set NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET, the Oracle database interfaces always use the UTF-16 character set. If you are using pooling with the ORA driver, and two Oracle connections are connected to the same Oracle server but use different character sets, the connections must reside in different connection or session pools. All pooling-related DBParm parameters must be set before the initial database connection.

For EAServer connections, you can use only Unicode or Local. For COM+ connections, you can use only Local.

Examples

Example 1

To specify that the OCI client should use the current character set defined by the NLS_LANG parameter on the local computer to store string datatypes:

See also

StrByCharset