R – load data into text file from oracle database views

Materialized views are disk based and are updated periodically based upon the query definition.

Views are virtual only and run the query definition each time they are accessed.

Whenever a client program (such as sqlplus) connects to the database, it tells the database what characterset it is using. Some environments may have a very restricted characterset and use something like US7ASCII so they don't get anything that can upset them.

As you can see in the following example, what is output by a query is dependent on the NLS_LANG setting of a client.

C:\>set NLS_LANG=.US7ASCII
C:\>sqlplus ???/???@xe

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Nov 3 09:31:32 2010
> select chr(193) from dual;

C
-
?

> quit

C:\>set NLS_LANG=.AL32UTF8
C:\>sqlplus ???/???@xe

SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Wed Nov 3 09:31:49 2010
> select chr(193) from dual;

C
-
┴

If your client is Windows, then try the above. If it is a unix(ish) platform, try

export NLS_LANG=.AL32UTF8