Anybody using NCHAR or NVARCHAR?

We're planning on expanding into some new international markets this year (assuming the world economy doesn't go in the tank, of course) and this will mean setting things up to run on multibyte charactersets.

I have a decent amount of experience running on unicode charactersets (UTF8) but none using NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, or NCLOB. Now, I've read up a bit in the Oracle documentation about the advantages of using NCHAR charactersets - optimized string processing, ease of programming with fixed-width multibyte characterset, etc. - but in my journeys around the web I haven't been able to find any real-life testimonials about how great NCHAR charactersets are. Parts of our product do quite a bit of string processing, searching on strings, etc., and I'm thinking that using NCHAR might be a Good Thing.

Anybody out there have any experience with these little guys? I'd sure like to hear what you've encountered, good and bad. It would be very helpful.

Thanks,
--Walt Weaver
  Bozeman, Montana, USA

P.S. - When I say we're expanding into international markets, I don't mean we're going to start selling stuff in Wyoming. I'm talking OUTSIDE the U.S.
:>)

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Author: Weaver, Walt
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