Since AL32UTF8 is not a strict binary superset of WE8DEC, I believe a full export & import would be necessary. ------------ Not necessarily. There is a utility to run (forgot the name) to scan your database for characters that will be incompatible with the new character set. If none are found, you can force the character set conversion. Testing on a throwaway clone DB would be a good idea. Making a backup would probably also be a good idea. A search of MetaLink will turn up the relevant docs. Jared ---------------------------------------------------------------- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe send email to: oracle-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line. -- Archives are at //www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at //www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------