Database Configuration for Unicode

Oracle 8 & 9

The Oracle 9i, 8i and 8.0 databases store Unicode data in the UTF8 encoding scheme, which is an ASCII compatible multibyte encoding for Unicode.

Database Confguration

Using the Oracle "Database Configuration Assistant" wizard, follow the options for creating a new database. Select the "custom" option when presented. This will enable you to use the "Change the Character Set" option, during the configuration of this Custom database. You want to select UTF8.

To check the character set in use by your database, execute the following query in SQL*Plus:

SQL> SELECT parameter, value FROM nls_database_parameters
   WHERE parameter = 'NLS_CHARACTERSET';

PARAMETER             VALUE
------------------    ---------------------
NLS_CHARACTERSET      UTF8

SQL>.

Unicode support is dependent on the Unicode features available through the Oracle Call Interface (OCI). OCI 8.1.5 supports inputting Unicode data into a database and retrieving Unicode data from a database.

The Following Oracle Data types can be using for storing Unicode data:

CHAR
VARCHAR
VARCHAR2