What does collation mean?

Question

What does collation mean in SQL, and what does it do?

Answer 1

Collation defines how you sort and compare string values

For example, it defines how to deal with

• accents (äàa etc)
• case (Aa)
• the language context:
  • In a French collation, cote < côte < coté < côté.
  • In the SQL Server Latin1 default , cote < coté < côte < côté
• ASCII sorts (a binary collation)