Oracle7 Server Reference Manual
What Does National Language Support Provide?
Oracle7 Server National Language Support allows users to interact with the database in their native language. It also allows applications to run in different language environments.
To achieve these goals, NLS provides
- support for processing data in the various character encoding schemes used by computer hardware
- both single-byte and multi-byte character encoding schemes
- client and server can use different character encoding schemes in client/server environments, with transparent conversion of data between them
- language-dependent operation of end-user applications
- Oracle7 Server messages displayed in multiple languages
- dates and numbers formatted using language and territory conventions
- character data sorted according to alphabetic conventions
- language-dependent operation specifiable for each session
The remainder of this chapter provides background on these issues and describes the mechanisms NLS provides to handle them.