What are National Language Support (NLS) parameters?

What are National Language Support (NLS) parameters?

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National Language Support (NLS) parameters are used to customize a database to store, process, and retrieve data in a native language and format. In other words, NLS parameters determine the locale-specific behavior on both the client and the server sides. These parameters have default values based on the associated database and the national character set chosen to create the database. The default values can be overridden by explicitly specifying the NLS parameters.

NLS parameters can be specified in the following four ways:

1. As initialization parameters on server side: NLS parameters can be included in an initialization parameter file to specify the default server environment. NLS parameters in an initialization parameter file do not affect the client side behavior. They control only the server side behavior.


2. As environment variables on client side: NLS parameters can also be set as environment variables to specify the locale-dependent behavior on the client side. These parameters override the parameters set for the server side in the initialization parameter file.


3. By using the ALTER SESSION statement: NLS parameters can also be set using the ALTER SESSION statement. These parameters override the parameters that are set as environment variables.


4. In SQL functions: NLS parameters can also be included in a SQL function. These parameters override the parameters set by the ALTER USER statement.

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