How to Find the Oracle Database Characterset

You must select proper Oracle Database Characterset while installing the database because it is very difficult to modify after installation. You need to select NLS_CHARACTERSET and NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET value from the list of characterset.

If you are planning to create create replica of any oracle environment then you must check all the the nls database parameter values from source and use the same while installation.

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How to Check Oracle Database Characterset

SQL> select parameter||','||value from nls_database_parameters;

NLS_LANGUAGE,AMERICAN

NLS_TERRITORY,AMERICA

NLS_CURRENCY,$

NLS_ISO_CURRENCY,AMERICA

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS,.,

NLS_CHARACTERSET,WE8MSWIN1252

NLS_CALENDAR,GREGORIAN

NLS_DATE_FORMAT,DD-MON-RR

NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE,AMERICAN

NLS_SORT,BINARY

NLS_TIME_FORMAT,HH.MI.SSXFF AM

NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT,DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM

NLS_TIME_TZ_FORMAT,HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR

NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT,DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR

NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY,$

NLS_COMP,BINARY

NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS,BYTE

NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP,FALSE

NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET,AL16UTF16

NLS_RDBMS_VERSION,11.2.0.3.0

SQL> SELECT PROPERTY_NAME, PROPERTY_VALUE from database_properties WHERE PROPERTY_NAME ='NLS_CHARACTERSET';
PROPERTY_NAME PROPERTY_VALUE

NLS_CHARACTERSET AL32UTF8

SQL> SELECT PROPERTY_NAME, PROPERTY_VALUE from database_properties WHERE PROPERTY_NAME ='NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET';
PROPERTY_NAME PROPERTY_VALUE

NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET UTF8

Conclusion: in this post we saw that how to check the Oracle Database Characterset using the query and setting the same while installation to avoid any further issues. To find out the database characterset you can use database_properties table which will show you all the nls database parameter values.