Ora 7.3 Change Character set

I have Oracle 7.3.4.5.0 Database, the database was created with US7ASCII character set.
We need to save and retrieve French characters in this database. My understanding that I have to change the character set.
The question is do I really have to change the character set ?
If yes what is the easiet way to do it ?


Thanx

Yes you have to change the character set.
Export the database, create database with new character set, set NLS_LANG parameter and import th database.

I already did this a while ago on a v7 db.

first we check if the chosen character set is OK
select convert('a','newcharset','us7ascii') from dual
if this statement returns ora-01482 the character set is invalid.

check the current character set
col c1 format a30
select name c1,value$ from sys.props$
where name = 'NLS_CHARACTERSET';

update the character set

update sys.props$
set value$ = 'newcharset'
where name = 'NLS_CHARACTERSET'

afterwards reboot the db.
The character set has been changed.

Hope this helps
Gert

I did this a couple of years back using the same method as Gert. The only recommendation I would add is to script the whole thing, and use a variable for the character set (using double ampersands so that the variable is only prompted for the first time it is encountered) in order to avoid possible typo's. If the character set is set to an invalid value, the database will not restart. Also, put some sort of pause in between the character set check, and the actual changing of the character set so that you have a chance to back out if the character set is invalid.

HTH

David.