Mmmmm, I should have mentioned that my 1st attempt at problem solving was to create a string using the chr function and printing the result to the console. This worked ok.

However, I will include another code test snippet here for clarification.

use  DBI;
use DBD::ODBC; 
my $username = shift;
my $password = shift;
my $oracle_db = shift;

# --- Get data from DB
$dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$oracle_db","$username","$password") or 
    die  ("Could not make connection to database:\n".
         "$DBI::errstr\n"); 
  
$dbh->{RaiseError} = 1;

my $sql_statement = 'SELECT A.LABEL, A.COMMENTS 
                     FROM mydb.table WHERE A.LABEL = ?';
$parm_cursor = $dbh->prepare ( $sql_statement );
$parm_cursor->execute('MYLABEL');  
(my $label, my $comment) = $parm_cursor->fetchrow_array();

# --- Verify output from DB
print "$comment\n";
my @nums = map ord, split //, $comment;
print join ' ', @nums,"\n";

# --- Verify that console can print a degree sign
my $str = "30 degrees = 30".chr(186);
@nums = map ord, split //, $str;
print "$str\n";
print join ' ', @nums,"\n";
[download]

And the output is: (Solaris. Perl 5.8.2)

INITIAL VALUE IS 0.0?
73 78 73 84 73 65 76 32 86 65 76 85 69 32 73 83 32 48 46 48 63 
30 degrees = 30º
51 48 32 100 101 103 114 101 101 115 32 61 32 51 48 186
[download]

And the output is: (Windows. Perl 5.6.1)
(The degree sign actually doesn't look like a degree symbol, it looks like a double-vertical-line, but I really don't care.)

INITIAL VALUE IS 0.0º;
73 78 73 84 73 65 76 32 86 65 76 85 69 32 73 83 32 48 46 48 186
30 degrees = 30º;
51 48 32 100 101 103 114 101 101 115 32 61 32 51 48 186
[download]

Is this a bug or a feature??

I can't reinstall perl 5.6.1 on Solaris to check it (the CM and QA people would shoot me!), but I am beginning to think that this is not a Windows/Solaris difference, but a difference between perl 5.6.1 and 5.8.2.