HS_LANGUAGE

Default value:	System-Specific
Range of values:	Any valid language name (up to 255 characters)

Provides Heterogeneous Services with character set, language, and territory information of the non-Oracle data source. The value must use the following format:

language[_territory.character_set]

Note: The national language support initialization parameters affect error messages, the data for the SQL Service, and parameters in distributed external procedures.

Character sets

Ideally, the character sets of the Oracle8i database server and the non-Oracle data source are the same. If they are not the same, Heterogeneous Services attempts to translate the character set of the non-Oracle data source to the Oracle8i character set, and vice versa. This translation can degrade performance. In some cases, HS cannot translate a character from one character set to another.

Note: The specified character set must be a superset of the operating system character set on the platform where the agent is installed.

Language

The language part of the HS_LANGUAGE initialization parameter determines:

• Day and month names of dates

• AD, BC, PM, and AM symbols for date and time

• Default sorting mechanism

Note that HS_LANGUAGE does not determine the language for error messages for the generic Heterogeneous Services messages (ORA-25000 through ORA-28000). These are controlled by the session settings in the Oracle database server.

Note: Use the HS_NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE initialization parameter to set the day and month names, and the AD, BC, PM, and AM symbols for dates and time independently from the language.

Territory

The territory clause specifies the conventions for day and week numbering, default date format, decimal character and group separator, and ISO and local currency symbols. Note that:

• You can override the date format using the initialization parameter HS_NLS_DATE_FORMAT.

• The level of National Language Support between the Oracle8i server and the non-Oracle data source depends on how the driver is implemented. See the Installation and Users' Guide for your platform for more information about the level of National Language Support.