Oracle NLS_LOWER function
Description
The Oracle NLS_LOWER() function returns a specified character expression in lowercase letters, considering linguistic conventions based on the National Language Support (NLS) parameters.
Note: National Language Support (NLS) is a technology enabling Oracle applications to interact with users in their native language, using their conventions for displaying data.
Uses of Oracle NLS_LOWER Function
- Converting Text to Lowercase: Transforms all characters in a string to lowercase.
- Supporting Multiple Languages: Handles lowercase conversions according to linguistic rules for various languages.
- Data Cleaning and Normalization: Normalizes text data to lowercase for consistent storage and processing.
- Preparing Data for Comparison: Ensures case-insensitive comparisons by converting text to lowercase.
- Formatting User Inputs: Standardizes user inputs to lowercase.
- Enhancing Data Presentation: Formats text data for consistent presentation in reports, GUIs, and other interfaces.
Syntax:
NLS_LOWER(string1 [, 'nlsparam' ])
Parameters:
| Name | Description | Data Types |
|---|---|---|
| string1 | A string whose first character in each word will be converted to uppercase and the rest characters will be converted to lowercase. | CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, CLOB, or NCLOB |
| nlsparam | The value of 'nlsparam' can have this form : 'NLS_SORT = sort' where sort is either a linguistic sort sequence or BINARY. The linguistic sort sequence handles special linguistic requirements for case conversions. These requirements can result in a return value of a different length than the char. If you omit 'nlsparam', then this function uses the default sort sequence for your session. |
Return Value Type:
CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, CLOB, or NCLOB
Examples: Oracle NLS_LOWER function
The following statement returns the lowercase form of the character string 'W3RESOURCE'.
SQL> SELECT NLS_LOWER('W3RESOURCE') "Lowercase" FROM DUAL;
Lowercase
----------
w3resource
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NLS_UPPER