Oracle NLS Parameters

NLS parameters determine the locale-specific runtime behavior on client and server. There are three common ways to specify NLS parameters:

Server: As initialization parameters for the database server, the NLS parameters can be included in the instance start-up file (INIT.ORA) to specify the default NLS environment.
Client: As environment variables for the client, the NLS parameters can be used to specify locale-dependent behavior for the client, overriding the defaults set for the server.
Alter Session: As ALTER SESSION parameters, the NLS parameters can be used to override the defaults set for the session or the server.

Parameter	Description	Default	Server	Client	Alter Session
NLS_LANG	Language, territory, character set	American_America.US7ASCII	Y	-	Y
NLS_LANGUAGE	Language	NLS_LANG	Y	-	Y
NLS_TERRITORY	Territory	NLS_LANG	Y	-	Y
NLS_CALENDAR	Calendar system	Gregorian	Y	-	Y
NLS_CREDIT	Credit accounting symbol	NLS_TERRITORY	-	Y	-
NLS_CURRENCY	Local currency symbol	NLS_TERRITORY	Y	Y	Y
NLS_DATE_FORMAT	Date format	NLS_TERRITORY	Y	Y	Y
NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE	Language for day, month names	NLS_LANGUAGE	Y	Y	Y
NLS_DEBIT	Debit accounting symbol	NLS_TERRITORY	-	Y	-
NLS_DISPLAY	Client-side display character set	-	-	Y	-
NLS_ISO_CURRENCY	ISO international currency symbol	NLS_TERRITORY	Y	Y	Y
NLS_LIST_SEPARATOR	Character separating items in a list	NLS_TERRITORY	-	Y	-
NLS_MONETARY_CHARACTERS	Monetary symbol for dollar & cents	NLS_TERRITORY	-	Y	-
NLS_NCHAR	National fixed-width character set	NLS_LANG	-	Y	-
NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS	Decimal character and group separator	NLS_TERRITORY	Y	Y	Y
NLS_SORT	Character sort sequence	NLS_LANGUAGE	Y	Y	Y

Internationalization Topics