# Localizing Derby

Derby offers support for locales.

The word locale in the Java platform refers to an instance of a class that identifies a particular combination of language and region. If a Java class varies its behavior according to locale, it is said to be locale-sensitive. Derby provides some support for locales for databases and other components such as the tools and the installer.

It also provides a feature to support databases in many different languages, a feature which is independent of a particular territory.

When you create or upgrade a database, you can use the territory attribute to associate a non-default territory with the database. For information about how to use the territory attribute, see the Java DB Reference Manual.

- SQL parser support for Unicode
  To support users in many different languages, Derby's SQL parser understands all Unicode characters and allows any Unicode character or number to be used in an identifier.
- Character-based collation in Derby
  A character set is a set of symbols and encodings. Character data types are represented as Unicode 2.0 sequences in Derby.
- Other components with locale support
  Derby also provides locale support for the following components:
- Messages libraries
  The following list describes the items required in order for Derby to provide localized messages.