NLS Formats, Languages and Territories

Specifying an NLS parameter for an SQL function means that any User Session NLS parameters (or
the lack of) will not affect evaluation of the function.

This feature may be important for SQL statements that contain numbers and dates as string literals. For
example, the following query is evaluated correctly only if the language specified for dates is
American: Object 1

SELECT ENAME FROM EMP

WHERE HIREDATE > '1-JAN-01'

This can be made independent of the current date language by specifying NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE:
SELECT ENAME FROM EMP
WHERE HIREDATE > TO_DATE('1-JAN-01','DD-MON-YY',
'NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE = AMERICAN')

Using all numerics is also language-independent:

SELECT ENAME FROM EMP

WHERE HIREDATE > TO_DATE('1-01-01','DD-MM-YY')

NLS settings include Character set, Language and Territory

Common character sets:

WE8ISO8859P15 European English includes euro character
US7ASCII American English

The DATE datatype always stores a four-digit year internally.

If you use the standard date format DD-MON-YY

YY will assume a year in the range 1900-1999 - it is strongly recommended you apply a specific
format mask.

YEAR 2000 Check:

SELECT
to_char(add_months(to_date('01-JAN-1998', 'DD-MON-YYYY'),1 * 12),'DD-MON-YYYY')
y1999,
to_char(add_months(to_date('01-JAN-1998', 'DD-MON-YYYY'),2 * 12),'DD-MON-YYYY')
y2000,
to_char(add_months(to_date('01-JAN-1998', 'DD-MON-YYYY'),7 * 12),'DD-MON-YYYY')
y2005,
to_char(add_months(to_date('01-JAN-1998', 'DD-MON-YYYY'),52 * 12),'DD-MON-YYYY')
y2050
FROM
DUAL;

-- Expected output from script above

-- Y1999 Y2000 Y2005 Y2050

-- ----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
-- 01-JAN-1999 01-JAN-2000 01-JAN-2005 01-JAN-2050

Oracle Languages

e.g. NLS_LANGUAGE = "MEXICAN SPANISH"

us AMERICAN
ar ARABIC

bn BENGALI
ptb BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE
bg BULGARIAN

frc CANADIAN FRENCH

ca CATALAN
zhs SIMPLIFIED CHINESE
hr CROATIAN
cs CZECH

dk DANISH
nl DUTCH

eg EGYPTIAN
gb ENGLISH
et ESTONIAN

sf FINNISH
f FRENCH

din GERMAN DIN

d GERMAN
el GREEK

iw HEBREW
hu HUNGARIAN

is ICELANDIC
in INDONESIAN
i ITALIAN

ja JAPANESE

ko KOREAN

esa LATIN AMERICAN SPANISH

lv LATVIAN
lt LITHUANIAN

ms MALAY
esm MEXICAN SPANISH

n NORWEGIAN

pl POLISH
pt PORTUGUESE

ro ROMANIAN
ru RUSSIAN
 sk SLOVAK
sl SLOVENIAN
e SPANISH
s SWEDISH

th THAI
zht TRADITIONAL CHINESE
tr TURKISH

uk UKRAINIAN

vn VIETNAMESE

The NLS_LANGUAGE above implicitly defines several other parameters:

NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE, NLS_SORT

Oracle Territories

e.g. NLS_TERRITORY = "UNITED KINGDOM"

ALGERIA
AMERICA
AUSTRALIA
AUSTRIA

BAHRAIN
BANGLADESH
BELGIUM
BRAZIL
BULGARIA

CANADA
CATALONIA
CHINA
CIS
CROATIA
CYPRUS
CZECH
CZECHOSLOVAKIA

DENMARK
DJIBOUTI

EGYPT
ESTONIA

FINLAND
FRANCE

GERMANY
GREECE

HONG KONG
HUNGARY

ICELAND
INDONESIA
IRAQ
IRELAND

ISRAEL
ITALY
JAPAN
JORDAN

KAZAKHSTAN
KOREA
KUWAIT

LATVIA
LEBANON
LIBYA
LITHUANIA
LUXEMBOURG

MALAYSIA
MAURITANIA
MEXICO
MOROCCO

NEW ZEALAND
NORWAY

OMAN
POLAND
PORTUGAL

QATAR

ROMANIA

SAUDI ARABIA
SINGAPORE
SLOVAKIA
SLOVENIA
SOMALIA
SOUTH AFRICA
SPAIN
SUDAN
SWEDEN
SWITZERLAND
SYRIA

TAIWAN
THAILAND
THE NETHERLANDS
 TUNISIA
TURKEY

UKRAINE
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
UNITED KINGDOM
UZBEKISTAN

VIETNAM

YEMEN

The NLS_TERRITORY implicitly defines several other parameters:

NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS, NLS_CURRENCY, NLS_ISO_CURRENCY,
NLS_DATE_FORMAT, NLS_MONETARY_CHARACTERS, NLS_CREDIT, NLS_DEBIT

If necessary these can be explicitly defined e.g. NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS = ",."

NLS_COMP
This provides a simple alternative to specifying NLS_SORT in an SQL WHERE clause
>NLS formats will affect SQL statements in views, CHECK constraints, and triggers.

Related Commands

ALTER SESSION