Using Types.NVARCHAR with oracle JDBC driver to work with Cyrillic chars

Question

I am trying to use the "New Methods for National Character Set Type Data in JDK 1.6", to get a standard JDBC solution to handle cyrillic chars, but when the execution reaches any line with NVARCHAR type, for instance:

preparedSelect.setObject(3, "суббота", Types.NVARCHAR);

Then I get this exception:

java.sql.SQLException: Invalid column type
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.SQLStateMapping.newSQLException(SQLStateMapping.java:70)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.newSQLException(DatabaseError.java:131)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:197)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:261)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:269)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.DatabaseError.throwSqlException(DatabaseError.java:490)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.setObjectCritical(OraclePreparedStatement.java:7922)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.setObjectInternal(OraclePreparedStatement.java:7502)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatement.setObject(OraclePreparedStatement.java:7975)
    at oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatementWrapper.setObject(OraclePreparedStatementWrapper.java:222)

I also tried to use setNString() but I get an even more strange exception:

java.lang.AbstractMethodError: oracle.jdbc.driver.OraclePreparedStatementWrapper.setNString(ILjava/lang/String;)V

If I use java -Doracle.jdbc.defaultNChar=true myApplication with regular Types.VARCHAR, the Russian words are stored correctly. But using -Doracle.jdbc.defaultNChar=true is not an option since I'm working on a legacy application, I do not have control of running production environment, I'm just writing a component to it. Furthermore, this "Readme for NChar How-to" states that "This conversion has a substantial performance impact". So setting everything to NChar by default when only less than 1% of my tables needs this conversion in not a smart choice.

I'm using oracle thin driver and I have ojdbc6.jar and orai18n.jar in my classpath.

I'm looking for a standard JDBC solution. I can not use any methods or constants with "oracle" on them. OraclePreparedStatement is not an option for me.

I tried using Types.NVARCHAR with MSSQL Server and it runs fine.

Answer 1

I found the solution!

I was using ojdbc 11.2.0.1. When I switched to 11.2.0.2, I could get setNString() working properly. But I'm still getting the same java.sql.SQLException: Invalid column type if I use setObject() with Type.NVARCHAR. Shame on you Oracle...

Anyway, the solution: switch to ojdbc 11.2.0.2