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Tom Kyte

Thanks for the question, Sade.

Asked: March 06, 2007 - 11:57 am UTC

Last updated: August 02, 2013 - 7:37 pm UTC

Version: v10.1.0.2.0

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You Asked

How to find if a Database is Unicode or Non Unicode.
I have checked v$nls_parameters and it has

NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET is AL16UTF16
NLS_CHARACTERSET is WE8ISO8859P1


and Tom said...

The database is therefore single byte Western European, with the option to store UTF data in NVARCHAR and NCHAR columns.

You did the check already!

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Question Still remain

Team DBA, August 02, 2013 - 2:07 pm UTC

Whether the database with above configuration is still UniCode or Non Unicode?
Tom Kyte
August 02, 2013 - 7:37 pm UTC

the database is single byte for normal varchars with the ability to store multi-byte data conforming to AL16UTF16 encodings in nvarchar fields.


the database is single byte by default.


read:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e10729/toc.htm

and
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e10729/ch2charset.htm#i1007017
in particular
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