Character Set Support for Distributed Environments - Oracle 10g

Oracle Database supports environments in which clients, Oracle Database servers, and non -Oracle Database servers use different character sets. NCHAR support is provided for heterogeneous environments. You can set a variety of National Language Support (NLS) and Heterogeneous Services (HS) environment variables and initialization parameters to control data conversion between different character sets.

Character settings are defined by the following NLS and HS parameters:

Client/Server Environment

In a client/server environment, set the client character set to be the same as or a subset of the Oracle Database server character set,

NLS Parameter Settings in a Client -Server Environment

Homogeneous Distributed Environment

In a nonheterogeneous environment, the client and server character sets should be either the same as or subsets of the main server character set, as illustrated below

NLS Parameter Settings in a Homogeneous Environment

Heterogeneous Distributed Environment

In a heterogeneous environment, the NLS settings of the client, the transparent gateway, and the non -Oracle Database data source should be either the same or a subset of the database server character set as illustrated below. Transparent gateways have full globalization support.

NLS Parameter Settings in a Heterogeneous Environment

In a heterogeneous environment, only transparent gateways built with HS technology support complete NCHAR capabilities. Whether a specific transparent gateway supports NCHAR depends on the non -Oracle Database data source it is targeting. For information on how a particular transparent gateway handles NCHAR support, consult the system-specific transparent gateway documentation.