Re: character set migration

From: Mindaugas Navickas <mnavickas_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 09:48:05 -0500 (EST)
Message-ID: <20051106144805.99516.qmail@web32512.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Jeroen,

WE8MSWIN1252 is a superset of WE8ISO8859P1 - it has additional characters at possitions 0x80-0x9f and Euro symbol at 0x80. If your db-clients uses Windows, then this charset would be a good fit. Note that even if yu change character set in database, clients might not be able to see Euro symbol if they continue using WE8ISO8859P1 - they most probably will get ? in possitions 0x80-0x9f. You have to make corresponding changes in regisry for NLS_LANG parameter.
ALTER DATABASE does not convert characters in the database - just changes definition. In that sense, it is save to use. However, if there are characters in original character set that are not supported in a new character set, then it might be a problem showing them correctly to client - use character set scanner to identify if this is the case.

Good luck
Mindaugas Navickas

• Jeroen van Sluisdam <jeroen.van.sluisdam_at_thomascook.nl> wrote:
  >
  > Hi,
  >
  > I encountered the demand to store the euro sign. With the current character
  > set impossible.
  > So I have to migrate to a new one. Docs state
  > alter database character set is possible when new character set is a
  > superset.
  >
  > Alternative is to export and import which is not a realistic at this time
  > for this organization.
  > I have 2 questions:
  > 1) My current character set is WE8ISO8859P1, I understood WE8ISO8859P15 does
  > contain the euro
  > sign but is this a superset?
  > 2) Any experiences with alter database character set? Is this a solution
  > without risks? I have about 3 tables
  > with either long or clob type fields so I might have to export and import
  > those only, but these are not about currencies so
  > should I export those?
  >
  > Hope you can shed some light on this,
  >
  > Tnx,
  >
  > Jeroen
  >
  

  ---

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Received on Sun Nov 06 2005 - 08:50:06 CST