Collate Columns Permit For Free

A collation specifies the bit patterns that represent each character in a dataset. Collations also determine the rules that sort and compare data. SQL Server supports storing objects that have different collations in a single database.

Collation is a set of rules that tell database engine how to compare and sort the character data in SQL Server. Collation can be set at different levels in SQL Server.

The collate clause is used for case sensitive and case insensitive searches in the columns of the SQL server. There are two types of collate clause present: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS for case sensitive. SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS for case insensitive.

You can change the collation of any new objects that are created in a user database by using the COLLATE clause of the ALTER DATABASE statement. This statement does not change the collation of the columns in any existing user-defined tables. These can be changed by using the COLLATE clause of ALTER TABLE.

You can specify collations for each character string column using the COLLATE clause of the CREATE TABLE or ALTER TABLE statement. You can also specify a collation when you create a table using SQL Server Management Studio. If you do not specify a collation, the column is assigned the default collation of the database.

To view a collation setting for a column in Object Explorer In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine and then expand that instance. Expand Databases, expand the database and then expand Tables. Expand the table that contains the column and then expand Columns.

Default server-level collation is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. If you are migrating databases from SQL Server to Azure SQL Managed Instance, check the server collation in the source SQL Server using SERVERPROPERTY(N'Collation') function and create a managed instance that matches the collation of your SQL Server.

You can find SQL collation at the server, database, and column level. Another important thing to know is that the collation setting need not be the same at the server, database, and column level. Also, you can update your queries to use specific collations.

Collation is a set of rules that tell database engine how to compare and sort the character data in SQL Server. Collation can be set at different levels in SQL Server.

Collations in SQL Server provide sorting rules, case, and accent sensitivity properties for your data. Collations that are used with character data types, such as char and varchar, dictate the code page and corresponding characters that can be represented for that data type.