Setting the NLS_LANG value in RDS Custom for Oracle
A locale is a set of information addressing linguistic and cultural
requirements that corresponds to a given language and country. To specify locale behavior
for Oracle software, set the NLS_LANG environment variable on your client host.
This variable sets the language, territory, and character set used by the client application
in a database session.
For RDS Custom for Oracle, you can set only the language in the NLS_LANG variable: the
territory and character use defaults. The language is used for Oracle database messages,
collation, day names, and month names. Each supported language has a unique name, for
example, American, French, or German. If language is not specified, the value defaults to
American.
After you create your RDS Custom for Oracle database, you can set NLS_LANG on your client
host to a language other than English. To see a list of languages supported by Oracle
Database, log in to your RDS Custom for Oracle database and run the following query:
SELECT VALUE FROM V$NLS_VALID_VALUES WHERE PARAMETER='LANGUAGE' ORDER BY VALUE;
You can set NLS_LANG on the host command line. The following example sets the
language to German for your client application using the Z shell on Linux.
export NLS_LANG=German
Your application reads the NLS_LANG value when it starts and then
communicates it to the database when it connects.
For more information, see Choosing a Locale with the NLS_LANG Environment Variable
