The identifier character set is the character set SQL uses for database object names, such as table names and column names. You can specify the identifier character set at the session and database level. The choice of identifier character set is limited to those character sets that include ASCII characters. This is necessary so that the object names for the Oracle Rdb system metadata, which is in ASCII, can be stored. You can specify the identifier character set for the database only when you create the database. You cannot alter the identifier character set of a database after creation. Following is a list of the character sets used for the identifier character set: o ASCII o AL24UTFFSS o DEC_MCS o DOS_LATIN1 o DOS_LATINUS o DEVANAGARI o DEC_SICGCC o DEC_HANYU o DEC_HANZI o GB18030 o ISOLATINARABIC o ISOLATINCYRILLIC o ISOLATIN1 o ISOLATIN9 o ISOLATINGREEK o ISOLATINHEBREW o DEC_KANJI o KATAKANA o DEC_KOREAN o SHIFT_JIS o UTF8 o UNSPECIFIED o TACTIS o WIN_ARABIC o WIN_GREEK o WIN_CYRILLIC o WIN_HEBREW When you compile SQL programs (either SQL module language or precompiled SQL), SQL uses the following to derive the identifier character set: o The IDENTIFIER CHARACTER SET clause of the SQL module header or the DECLARE MODULE statement specifies the character set for parameters that are not qualified by a character set. o In dynamic SQL, the SET IDENTIFIER CHARACTER SET statement specifies, at run time, the character set for parameters that are not qualified by a character set. o The RDB$CHARACTER_SET logical name. However, the logical name is deprecated and will not be supported in a future release. SQL uses DEC_MCS as the identifier character set, unless you have set the dialect to MIA or specified an identifier character set at the session level. You can override any identifier character set by specifying another identifier character set when creating a database.