can not insert char like Ñ into my 8i db

Hi friends,

I have 2 oracle dbs , 8i and 10g,
I have inserted SURNAME column value in my table in 8i with the
letter "Ñ" but it changes it to "?", while in 10g the result is fine.

What do i do please....i check their language territory and they
have both AMERICAN.AMERICA

Thanks a lot

It's not about language and territory, it's about database character set. What are those in your two databases?

thanks jmodic... :) i forgot where to set the character set ....
it is in init.ora ? i cant find it using show parameters....sos pls

Thanks again

Database's characterset is set during the database creation, it doesn't depend on any init parameter.

You can find what your current database parameter is by querying the NLS_DATABASE_PARAMETER system view.

I belive you'll find your 10g database has some kind of unicode characterset, while your 8i database probably has US7ACII or some other characterset that is not capable of accepting characzer "Ñ".

Under some circumstances, you can change your database characterset, but if those circumstances are not met you'll have no other choice but to rebuild your whole database with different characterset.