Character Width Setting

You must choose between 8-bit or Unicode (16-bit) character width for your installation. An 8-bit instance cannot process data in 16-bit format, while a Unicode instance can process both 8-bit and 16-bit data.

If you need your instance to store and process data in a language that uses only Unicode character sets, such as Japanese, you must select Unicode. If the base character set for the locale your instance uses is based on the Latin-1 character set, ISO8859-1, you can select 8-bit, but bear in mind:

• If you select 8-bit, the data stored by your instance is portable only to 8-bit locales based on the same character set.

• If you select Unicode, the data stored by the instance is not portable to an 8-bit instance.