How to Install SQL Server on a Mac with VirtualBox

Posted on by Ian

Here I’ll show you how to install SQL Server on a Mac with VirtualBox running Windows (a free trial edition).

The result of this is that you’ll have both Windows and SQL Server running on your Mac. And because you’re using VirtualBox, switching between macOS and Windows is as easy as switching between any other application.

As mentioned, this method involves Windows. If that scares you, then you might be better off installing SQL Server on your Mac via a Docker container. That method doesn’t involve Windows in any shape or form.

But if you don’t mind using Windows (or if you need to), here are the main steps for installing SQL Server for Windows on your Mac using VirtualBox:

  1. Download and Install VirtualBox
  2. Create a New Virtual Machine (VM)
  3. Download the Windows ISO image
  4. Install Windows
  5. Download and Install SQL Server

Below are more detailed instructions for each of these steps.
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How to Set the Character Set and Collation of a Database in MySQL

Posted on by Ian

In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.

To set the character set and collation at the database level, you can use the CREATE DATABASE statement or ALTER DATABASE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the database or modifying it).
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How to Set the Character Set and Collation of a Table in MySQL

Posted on by Ian

In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.

To set the character set and collation at the table level, you can use the CREATE TABLE statement or ALTER TABLE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the table or modifying it).
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How to Set the Character Set and Collation of a Column in MySQL

Posted on by Ian

In MySQL, you can specify the character set and collation at various levels. You can specify them at the connection level, the server level, the database level, the table level, and the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries so that it overrides any collation that has been previously specified at the aforementioned levels.

To set the character set and collation at the column level, you can use the CREATE TABLE statement or ALTER TABLE statement (depending on whether you’re creating the table or modifying it), and specify the character set and collation within the column’s definition (the column that you want to set the character set/collation on).
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How to Set the Collation of a Database in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

When using SQL Server, you can use T-SQL to specify the default collation of a database. Specifically, you can use the COLLATE clause of either the CREATE DATABASE or ALTER DATABASE  statements.

The COLLATE clause is optional – if you don’t use it when creating the database, the database will use the default collation of the server (which was specified at the time SQL Server was installed). And if you don’t specify the clause when altering the database, its default collation won’t change.
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How to Set the Collation of a Column in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

By default, each column in a SQL Server database uses the collation that’s been specified at the database level. And by default, the database collation is taken from the server collation. However, these collation settings can be overridden, both at the database level and the column level by explicitly setting the collation at that level.

This page demonstrates how to specify the collation of a column. You can set the collation by adding the T-SQL COLLATE clause to the CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements. When you use those statements, you define the column and its properties, including any collation settings. The COLLATE clause is optional so if you don’t include it, the column will simply use the default collation of the database.
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How to Show the Server Collation in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

The server collation acts as the default collation for all system databases that are installed with the instance of SQL Server, as well as any newly created user databases. The server collation is specified during SQL Server installation.

Below are two ways to check the server collation in SQL Server using Transact-SQL.

The SERVERPROPERTY() Function

One option is to use the SERVERPROPERTY() function:

SELECT CONVERT (varchar, SERVERPROPERTY('collation')) AS 'Server Collation';

This returns the collation like this:

Server Collation
----------------------------
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

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How to Show the Collation of a Database in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

Here are two ways to return the collation of a database in SQL Server using Transact-SQL.

Query sys.databases

The first option is to run a query against sys.databases to return the collation of a specific database. The WHERE clause allows you to narrow the results down to the database/s you’re interested in:

SELECT 
    name, 
    collation_name 
FROM sys.databases
WHERE name = 'Music';

This results in something like this:

name   collation_name              
-----  ----------------------------
Music  SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

In this case, we specified the database called Music.
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How to Specify the Collation in a Query in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

In database systems, collation determines how data is sorted and compared in a database. For example, when you run a query using the ORDER BY clause, collation determines whether or not uppercase letters and lowercase letters are treated the same.

In SQL Server, collation is specified at the server level, the database level, and the column level.

Collation can also be applied to a character string expression to apply a collation cast. For example, you can use the COLLATE clause in a T-SQL SELECT statement to specify the collation to be used. Like this:

USE Music;
SELECT ArtistId, ArtistName
FROM Artists
ORDER BY ArtistName COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AI;

That collation uses CI for case-insensitive, and AI for accent-insensitive.
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How to Show the Collation of a Column in SQL Server (T-SQL)

Posted on by Ian

In SQL Server, collation can be specified at the server level, database level, and the column level, as well as inside expressions.

To find out what collation a specific column uses, run a T-SQL query against sys.columns. Like this:

SELECT 
    name, 
    collation_name 
FROM sys.columns 
WHERE name = N'ArtistName';

This results in something like this:

name   collation_name              
----------  ----------------------------
ArtistName  SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

This example returns the collation of a column called ArtistName. Simply replace that with the name of the column you’d like to query.
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