title: Oracle 12c: converting from AL32UTF8 to WE8MSWIN1252
body: <p>I have a situation where I need to convert an Oracle 12c database from NLS AL32UTF8 to WE8MSWIN1252. Based on what I've read, migration in this direction, from single byte to multibyte, is problematic, but I'm wondering if the following steps would do the trick (see below). Basically, I want to drop the project's main schema, run the alter database character set command, and then re-import the data from the original source database (this is all part of a database migration, thus I can scrap the project's main schema in the AL32UTF8 database). In other words, none of the client's data will be present during the conversion. The database will be stock/naked.</p>
  
  <p>Would this work? Or will basic data dictionary tables suffer during conversion from AL32UTF8 to WE8MSWIN1252? Thank you.</p>
  
  <p>The steps: </p>
  
  <pre><code>-- drop the main project schema
  shutdown immediate;
  startup mount;
  alter system enable restricted session;
  alter system set job_queue_processes=0;
  alter system set aq_tm_processes=0;
  alter database open;
  alter database character set WE8MSWIN1252;
  shutdown immediate;
  startup;
  -- re-import the project's schema
  </code></pre>