How to retrieve characters like '£' from the database and write to xml file

Question

Hi ,
I have a requirement to retrieve the data from database and write to files in XML format.
I am able to do so successfuly by using XMLElement tag and writing to file through UTL_File package.
All characters like <&@^ get converted properly, but when it comes to multibyte chars like '£', they are not able to get converted as it is.
Can somebody please advise me how to go ahead.
Regards

Answer 1

Thanks odie.
The nls_charset for my database is WE8ISO8859P1 and database version is Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.5.0 - 64bi.
The data (with pound sign) is sitting in one of the columns of the table and when i query it directly, I am able to view it properly.
However when I use the below code to retrieve in XML format and print it to file, it gets changed. This file is also passed to one of the application GUI where this XML gets processsed and it is not visible properly.
below id the sample abstract of code I am using.
Declare
l_file UTL_FILE.FILE_TYPE;
l_clob CLOB;
l_buffer VARCHAR2(32767);
l_amount BINARY_INTEGER := 32767;
l_pos INTEGER := 1;
Begin
SELECT XMLElement("case",
XMLElement("comments",
XMLElement("comment",
XMLElement("comments",a.COMMENTS)
).getClobVal() val1 into l_clob
FROM TO_COMMENTS a
l_file :=
UTL_FILE.fopen (XMLDIR,
test.xml,
'w',
32767);
LOOP
DBMS_LOB.read (l_clob,
l_amount,
l_pos,
l_buffer);
UTL_FILE.put_line (l_file, l_buffer);
l_pos := l_pos + l_amount;
END LOOP;
EXCEPTION
WHEN NO_DATA_FOUND THEN
DBMS_OUTPUT.NEW_LINE('Reached end of file');
END;
The comments column given contains the character like pound.
And once the file is generated and i see using the vi editor, the char is not viewable properly like £
And when the same is passed to GUI application to be processed, its not viewable propely in GUI from IE as well like �.