How to Specify the Collation in a Query in SQL Server (T-SQL)

by

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.

Read more

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

by

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.

Read more

How to Show the Collation of your Connection in MySQL

by

When you run a query against a MySQL database, MySQL uses a bunch of system variables to determine which character set and collation to use whenever queries are run. If the client uses a different character set to the server, then MySQL can translate it into an appropriate character set and collation.

When sending the query results back to the client, MySQL can translate these results back to a different character set altogether if required. MySQL uses system variables to determine which character sets and collations to use at each of these steps.

The following singles out the connection collation:

SELECT @@collation_connection;

Example result:

+------------------------+
| @@collation_connection |
+------------------------+
| utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci     |
+------------------------+

Read more

How to Show the Collation of a Database in MySQL

by

This article provides three ways to return the collation of a database in MySQL.

The following statement can be used to check the default character set and collation for a given database:

USE Music;
SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;

Example result:

+--------------------------+----------------------+
| @@character_set_database | @@collation_database |
+--------------------------+----------------------+
| utf8                     | utf8_general_ci      |
+--------------------------+----------------------+

This example shows the collation for a database called Music. First, we switch to that database, then we do the SELECT statement to return system variables for the character set and the collation.

Read more

How to Show the Server Collation in MySQL

by

Running the following command returns the server’s default collation.

SELECT @@collation_server;

Example result:

+--------------------+
| @@collation_server |
+--------------------+
| utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
+--------------------+

This returns the collation_server system variable, which contains the collation of the server. However, this isn’t the only way to do it.

Read more

How to Show the Collation of a Column in MySQL

by

This page contains three ways of returning the collation of a column in MySQL.

Running the following query is the quickest way to return the collation of a column. In particular, it returns information about each column in a given table. This includes the collation information.

SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM Artists;

That results in a lot of columns being returned with all sorts of information about the column, including the collation. To reduce the number of columns returned, see below.

Read more

How to Show the Collation of a Table in MySQL

by

Here are two ways to return the collation of a table in MySQL.

The quickest way to return the collation of a given table in MySQL is to run the following statement:

SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE '%Artists%';

Running this statement will return a whole bunch of columns that provide information about any matching table/s. One of these columns is called Collation, and it provides the collation of all matching tables.

Of course, you’ll need to replace %Artists% with your own table name. And you can omit the percentage signs if you don’t think they’re needed. This statement also accepts other clauses, such as FROM, WHERE, and IN, so this gives you some options when building your statement.

Read more

How to Find the Collation in MySQL

by

In MySQL, collation can be applied at many levels. It can be applied at the server level, the connection level, the database level, the table level, and even at the column level. You can also specify a collation in your queries that will override any collation that has been applied at the database, table, or column levels.

Here’s how to find out what collation is being applied at each of these levels.

Shortcut for Connection, Server, and Database Collation

The quickest way to get collation information for the connection, server, and database is to use the following statement. This statement returns all system variables starting with collation:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';

This returns the collation for the server, connection, and database. Like this:

+----------------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name        | Value              |
+----------------------+--------------------+
| collation_connection | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
| collation_database   | utf8_general_ci    |
| collation_server     | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci |
+----------------------+--------------------+

You can also return each of these system variables separately if required. See below for instructions on how to do that.

Read more

How to Find the Collation in SQL Server (T-SQL)

by

Collation can be specified at the server level, database level, column level, expression level, and the identifier level. A different method is required for each of these.

Server Level Collation

Here’s how to find the server level collation:

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

This returns the collation like this:

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

Read more

How to Check your SQL Server Version

by

SQL Server, or more specifically, Transact-SQL, includes a number of built in functions, including the @@version scalar function. The @@version function is a configuration function, which returns system and build information for the current installation of SQL Server. You can run this function at any time to find out which version of SQL Server you’re using.

Here’s how:

SELECT @@version;

When running that in a command line interface, you might see results that look like this:

Microsoft SQL Server 2017 (RTM-CU6) (KB4101464) - 14.0.3025.34 (X64) 
	Apr  9 2018 18:00:41 
	Copyright (C) 2017 Microsoft Corporation
	Developer Edition (64-bit) on Linux (Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS)

1 row(s) returned

Executed in 1 ms

Read more