Problem Loading Polish Language Special Characters Using SQLLoader (Doc ID 2615504.1)

Last updated on JULY 20, 2024

Applies to:

Symptoms

Use Case:  Problem loading Polish Language special characters using SQLLoader using a long-running load app that loads employee data nightly from flat files.

"...Recently, an Employee field with a Polish surname was hired and we're seeing the special character in his name.
    The character loaded is showing as an "un-mapped" character (upside down question mark)
    This is the name as it appears in the data file

     (vertical pipes are delimeters): |T.......|Wł.........."

Note the special character after the "W" in his last name

This is the resulting db record:

SQL> select first_name,last_name from employee_stage;

FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME
---------- ---------------
T..... W¿......


"...After some research I found some document related to a similar issue that talked about setting the NLS_LANG parameter on the client and using a specific CHARACTERSET in sqlloader.
   However after several attempts this did not work.  For example using sqlloader the current settings were:

  DB: NLS_CHARACTERSET WE8ISO8859P1
         NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET UTF8

   Client (Windows) : NLS_LANG AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8ISO8859P1

"...This problem is causing a ripple effect across our application suite..."

Changes

New data was being loaded from a different geographic reason for the first time.
The region in Eastern Europe was newly added and loaded using previously working methods

Cause

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