TRANSLATE converts a text string between the database character set and the national character set.
Note: The TRANSLATE USING function is supported primarily for ANSI compatibility. Oracle recommends that you use the TO_CHAR and TO_NCHAR functions for converting data to the database or national character sets. TO_CHAR and TO_NCHAR can take as arguments a greater variety of data types than TRANSLATE USING, which accepts only character data.
VARCHAR2 | NVARCHAR2
TRANSLATE (char USING { CHAR_CS | NCHAR_CS } )
char is a text expression to be converted to the database character set (USING CHAR_CS) or the national character set (USING NCHAR_CS).
TRANSLATE('north by northwest' USING NCHAR_CS) returns the value north by northwest in the national character set.