In MariaDB, COLLATION() is a secondary built in function that returns the collation of a given string.

We provide the string when we call the function.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

COLLATION(str)

Where str is the string.

Example

Here’s a simple example:

SELECT COLLATION('Maria');

Result:

+--------------------+
| COLLATION('Maria') |
+--------------------+
| utf8_general_ci    |
+--------------------+

And here’s another example that uses Thai characters:

SELECT COLLATION(_tis620'ไม้เมือง');

Result:

+----------------------------------------------+
| COLLATION(_tis620'ไม้เมือง')                   |
+----------------------------------------------+
| tis620_thai_ci                               |
+----------------------------------------------+

Wrong Argument Type

Passing an argument that is not a string results in the word binary being returned.

SELECT COLLATION(123);

Result:

+----------------+
| COLLATION(123) |
+----------------+
| binary         |
+----------------+

Null Arguments

Passing null results in the word binary being returned.

SELECT COLLATION(null);

Result:

+-----------------+
| COLLATION(null) |
+-----------------+
| binary          |
+-----------------+

Missing Argument

Calling COLLATION() without passing an argument results in an error:

SELECT COLLATION();

Result:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near ')' at line 1