Oracle 9i Fundamentals I Exam Cram™ 2 (Exam 1Z0-031)

Language-Dependent Application Behavior

SQL functions support both single-byte and multibyte characters. Some SQL functions require that appropriate NLS parameters be specified explicitly as a part of their parameter list for the functions to perform properly. In this way, not only can the environment variables override the default behavior at the database level, but you can also allow the SQL functions to override the environment variables' default behavior without having to alter the session. This behavior can be seen in the following SQL statement:

Select To_char(birthday_date, 'DD.Mon.YYYY', 'NLS_DATE_LANGUATE=FRENCH') as "Birth Date"
 from ...