NCHAR and NVARCHAR2 lengths must be given in characters, not bytes. This is partly because a single character may occupy
more than a single byte in memory. Specify the field length in bytes, and theoretically your value could overrun the field, but instead Oracle simply
refuses to run the code. Specify it in characters, and Oracle will allocate the appropriate number of bytes to store the requested number of
characters. Trying to specify the length semantics in bytes will result in the PLS-00639: NCHAR/NVARCHAR2 cannot be byte length semantics
exception being raised.
Noncompliant code example
DECLARE
foo NCHAR(42 BYTE); -- Noncompliant - raises PLS-00639
BEGIN
NULL;
END;
/
Compliant solution
DECLARE
foo NCHAR(42); -- Compliant
bar NCHAR(42 CHAR); -- Also compliant, as an alternative
BEGIN
NULL;
END;
/
