Prb with blank NCHAR under Oracle 8.0.5 Client

[fiorah]

Hi,

My Oracle Client version is 8.0.5

When trying to query a 9.2.0.4 db i have prb with
NCHAR fields which are blanks when querying
from 'PL/SQL developer' (5.0.2.500)

Note that strangely, the same NCHAR fields are
correctly displayed under 'SQL*Plus'

Below are the 9.2.0.4 nls_databse_parameters :

NLS_LANGUAGE AMERICAN
NLS_TERRITORY AMERICA
NLS_CURRENCY $
NLS_ISO_CURRENCY AMERICA
NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS .,
NLS_CHARACTERSET WE8MSWIN1252
NLS_CALENDAR GREGORIAN
NLS_DATE_FORMAT DD-MON-RR
NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE AMERICAN
NLS_SORT BINARY
NLS_TIME_FORMAT HH.MI.SSXFF AM
NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM
NLS_TIME_TZ_FORMAT HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR
NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR
NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY $
NLS_COMP BINARY
NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS BYTE
NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP FALSE
NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET AL16UTF16
NLS_RDBMS_VERSION 9.2.0.4.0
NLS_CSMIG_SCHEMA_VERSION 2

I've read many things about setting NLS language
and tried many config with no succes so far. I
also read that there was a NLS patch for Oracle
8i in order to be able to retrieve correctly
NCHAR values under AL16UFT16 NCHAR charset (new
default charset since Oracle 9). but
u nfortunately i have no metalink account.

any help to sort this out much appreciated,

Thanks,

Fiorah.

 

[Marco Kalter]

For nchar support you need an Oracle9 client or later.

 

[fiorah]

Thanks for the answer, but then can you explain why my SQL*Plus 8.0.5 (provided with Oracle Client 8) displays NCHAR correctly ???

The fact that my SQL*Plus displays correctly NCHAR
makes me thinking that the prb is not due to my
Oracle client version.... ?

Don't you think so ?

Fiorah.

 

[fiorah]

OK just in case it might help someone else,
i had the solution : downloaded PL/SQL developer
version 6 and enabled the 'Force OCI7 mode on OCI8' option under Preferences->Oracle->Connection

Now NCHAR fileds are displayed correctly (not blank anymore), even though my Oracle Client is 8
and not 9 ;o))

Fiorah.