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Character Sets Use this tab to define thc character sets used by your database. Character sets are the encoding schemes used to display characters on your Computer screen. The character set determines what languages can be represented in the database.

Oracle recommcnds using Unicode (AL32UTF8) as the database character set. AL32UTF8 is Oracles name for the UTF-8 encoding of the Unicode standard. The Unicode standard is thc universal character set that supports most of the currently spoken languages of the world. The use of the Unicode standard is indispensable for any multilingual technology, including database processing.

After a database is creatcd and accumulatcs production data, changing thc database character set is a time consuming and complcx project. Thcrcfore. it is vcry important to select the right character set at installation time. Even if the database does not currently storę multilingual data but is expected to storę multilingual data within a few years, thc choice of AL32UTF8 for the database character set is usually thc only good decision.

If you create a CDB, consider that the character set you select determines which othcr databases you can later pług into the CDB. Only databases with a compatible database character set can be plugged into the CDB.

The default character set used by Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) and Database Configuration Assistant (DBCA) for the UNIX, Linux, and Microsoft Windows platforms is not AL32UTF8, but a Microsoft Windows character set known as an ANSI

codę page. The particular character set is selected based on the current language (localc) of the operating system session that started OUI or DBCA. If the language is American English or a Western European language. then thc default character set is WE8MSWIN1252. Each Microsoft Windows ANSI Codę Page can storę data from only

one language or a limited group of languages, such as only Western European, or only Eastcrn European, or only Japanesc.

A Microsoft Windows character set is the default even for databases created on UNIX and Linux platforms because Microsoft Windows is the prevalent platform for client workstations. Oracle Client libraries automatically perform the necessary character set