Hi 1) Double byte supports Japanese and Chinese and Korean Characters so of you have to support entry in one of those then you will need double byte single byte is basically for everything else 2) To create a database double byte enabled you need to select some options like characterset support for your database This link will pretty much answer all your questions http://download-west.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/server.102/b14225/toc. htm Peter McLarty Technical Consultant Service Delivery +61733777542 TechnologyOne -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of dba1 mcc Sent: Wednesday, 12 July 2006 6:19 AM To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: multi_byte or single_byte database???? We have ORACLE 10.2.0.2 installed on LINUX server. We just purchased a third party software and vendor asked me database is multi-byte or single_byte database? My questions are: 1. what is multi_byte database and what is single_byte database? 2. how to create database use multi_byte? 3. how to create database use single_byte? 4. how to check database is multi_byte or single_byte? 5. any document relate to that? Thanks. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l