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Other National Language Parameters

You can use a number of other national language parameters to indicate specific attributes of the national language setting:
  1. NLS_CALENDAR indicates the calendar system used for the language.
  2. NLS_CURRENCY indicates the local currency symbol.
  3. NLS_DATE_FORMAT indicates the local date format.
  4. NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE indicates the default language used for dates.
  5. NLS_ISO_CURRENCY indicates the ISO international currency symbol.
  6. NLS_SORT indicates the sort order for the language.

NLS_CALENDAR specifies which calendar system Oracle uses. It can have one of the following values:
  1. Arabic Hijrah
  2. English Hijrah
  3. Gregorian
  4. Japanese Imperial
  5. Persian
  6. ROC Official (Republic of China)
  7. Thai Buddha
For example, suppose NLS_CALENDAR is set to "Japanese Imperial", the date format is "E YY-MM-DD".
("E" is the date format element for the abbreviated era name.) If the date is May 15, 1997, then the SYSDATE is displayed as follows: 
SELECT SYSDATE FROM DUAL;
SYSDATE
--------
H 09-05-15

Each of these can be set in the Oracle initialization file or on a session-by-session basis. You do not have to set any of them unless you wish their values to be different from the normal values for NLS_LANGUAGE and NLS_TERRITORY.