BEA Weblogic Interview Question:

How do I learn what codesets are available in Oracle?

Submitted by: Administrator

To find out what codesets you currently have available in Oracle, execute the following SQL query from SQLPlus at the command line:

SQL> SELECT value FROM v$nls_valid_values WHERE parameter='CHARACTERSET';

The response lists of all codesets currently installed on your system. This listing will look something like the following shortened list:
VALUE
---------------
US7ASCII
WE8DEC
WE8HP
US8PC437
WE8EBCDIC37
WE8EBCDIC500
WE8EBCDIC285
...

If you want to constrain the value in the query to a specific codeset you are searching for, you might use a SQL query like the following:
SQL> SELECT value FROM v$nls_valid_values
WHERE parameter='CHARACTERSET' and VALUE='AL24UTFFSS';

This would produce the following response if the codeset is installed:

VALUE
-------------------
AL24UTFFSS

You can use Oracle's installation tools to install additional codesets. Contact Oracle for more information.
Submitted by: Administrator