Hi Jeroen, WE8MSWIN1252 is a superset of WE8ISO8859P1 - it has additional characters at possitions 0x80-0x9f and Euro symbol at 0x80. If your db-clients uses Windows, then this charset would be a good fit. Note that even if yu change character set in database, clients might not be able to see Euro symbol if they continue using WE8ISO8859P1 - they most probably will get ? in possitions 0x80-0x9f. You have to make corresponding changes in regisry for NLS_LANG parameter. ALTER DATABASE does not convert characters in the database - just changes definition. In that sense, it is save to use. However, if there are characters in original character set that are not supported in a new character set, then it might be a problem showing them correctly to client - use character set scanner to identify if this is the case. Good luck Mindaugas Navickas --- Jeroen van Sluisdam <jeroen.van.sluisdam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi, > > I encountered the demand to store the euro sign. With the current character > set impossible. > So I have to migrate to a new one. Docs state > alter database character set is possible when new character set is a > superset. > > Alternative is to export and import which is not a realistic at this time > for this organization. > I have 2 questions: > 1) My current character set is WE8ISO8859P1, I understood WE8ISO8859P15 does > contain the euro > sign but is this a superset? > 2) Any experiences with alter database character set? Is this a solution > without risks? I have about 3 tables > with either long or clob type fields so I might have to export and import > those only, but these are not about currencies so > should I export those? > > Hope you can shed some light on this, > > Tnx, > > Jeroen > __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l