Collation Settings in Setup

SQL Server Setup

Many server-to-server activities can fail or yield inconsistent results if collation settings are not consistent across servers. To avoid this, select a Windows locale or SQL Server collation (SQL_*) to match the collation settings in other instances of SQL Server.

SQL Server 2008 supports setting collations at the following levels:

  • Server
  • Database
  • Column
  • Expression

For more information, see Collation and International Terminology and How to: Install SQL Server 2008 from the Command Prompt.

Binary Collations

Binary collations sort and compare data in SQL Server based on the bit pattern for each character. Each binary collation in SQL Server maps to a specific language locale and ANSI code page, and each performs case-sensitive and accent-sensitive data sorts. For more information, see Windows Collation Sorting Styles and Guidelines for Using BIN and BIN2 Collations.

SQL Server Collations (SQL_*)

Select this option to match settings with English-language versions SQL Server 2005 or earlier versions. For more information, see Using SQL Server Collations.

Windows system locale

The default installation settings are determined by the Windows system locale. The server-level collation can either be changed during setup, or by changing the Windows system locale before installation,. The default collations are set to the oldest available version that is associated with each specific locale. This is due to backwards compatibility reasons. Therefore, these are not always the recommended collations. To take advantage of the SQL Server 2008 features, change the default installation settings for Windows collations..

To set the Windows locale for operating systems before Windows Vista, in Contol Panel, find the Windows system locale name on the Advanced tab in Regional and Language Options. In Windows Vista, use the Formats tab.

Collation Designator

Select the name of a specific Windows collation from the Collation Designator list. For example, use Latin1_General for the U.S. English character set (code page 1252).

Sort Order

Select sort order options to use with the selected collation designator. Binary is the fastest sorting order and is case-sensitive, but can yield unexpected sort orders. If Binary is selected, the Case-sensitive, Accent-sensitive, Kana-sensitive, and Width-sensitive options are not available. For more information, see Windows Collation Sorting Styles.

Default Collations in SQL Server Setup

In Control Panel, find the Windows system locale name on the Advanced tab in Regional and Language Options. In Windows Vista, use the Formats" tab. The following table shows the corresponding collation designator and code page to match collation settings with an existing Windows locale:

Windows Locale

Windows LCID

Default

Code Page

Afrikaans (South Africa)

0x0436

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Albanian (Albania)

0x041c

Albanian_CI_AS

1252

Alsatian (France)

0x0484

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Amharic (Ethiopia)

0x045e

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Arabic (Algeria)

0x1401

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Bahrain)

0x3c01

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Egypt)

0x0c01

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Iraq)

0x0801

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Jordan)

0x2c01

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Kuwait)

0x3401

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Lebanon)

0x3001

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Libya)

0x1001

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Morocco)

0x1801

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Oman)

0x2001

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Qatar)

0x4001

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Saudi Arabia)

0x0401

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Syria)

0x2801

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Tunisia)

0x1c01

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (U.A.E.)

0x3801

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Arabic (Yemen)

0x2401

Arabic_CI_AS

1256

Armenian (Armenia)

0x042b

Cyrillic_General_100_CI_AS

1251

Assamese (India)

0x044d

Not available at server level

Unicode

Azeri (Azerbaijan, Cyrillic)

0x082c

Azeri_Cyrillic_90_CI_AS

1251

Azeri (Azerbaijan, Latin)

0x042c

Azeri_Latin_90_CI_AS

1254

Bashkir (Russia)

0x046d

Bashkir_100_CI_AS

1251

Basque (Basque)

0x042d

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Belarusian (Belarus)

0x0423

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Bengali (Bangladesh)

0x0845

Not available at server level

Unicode

Bengali (India)

0x0445

Not available at server level

Unicode

Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyrillic)

0x201a

Bosnian_Cyrillic_100_CI_AS

1251

Bosnian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin)

0x141a

Bosnian_Latin_100_CI_AS

1250

Breton (France)

0x047e

Breton_100_CI_AS

1252

Bulgarian (Bulgaria)

0x0402

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Catalan (Catalan)

0x0403

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Chinese (Hong Kong SAR, PRC)

0x0c04

Chinese_Hong_Kong_Stroke_90_CI_AS

950

Chinese (Macao SAR)

0x1404

Chinese_Traditional_Pinyin_100_CI_AS

950

Chinese (Macau)

0x21404

Chinese_Traditional_Stroke_Order_100_CI_AS

950

Chinese (PRC)

0x0804

Chinese_PRC_CI_AS

936

Chinese (PRC)

0x20804

Chinese_PRC_Stroke_CI_AS

936

Chinese (Singapore)

0x1004

Chinese_PRC_CI_AS

936

Chinese (Singapore)

0x21004

Chinese_Simplified_Stroke_Order_100_CI_AS

936

Chinese (Taiwan)

0x30404

Chinese_Taiwan_Bopomofo_CI_AS

950

Chinese (Taiwan)

0x0404

Chinese_Taiwan_Stroke_CI_AS

950

Corsican (France)

0x0483

Corsican_100_CI_AS

1252

Croatian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin)

0x101a

Croatian_100_CI_AS

1250

Croatian (Croatia)

0x041a

Croatian_CI_AS

1250

Czech (Czech Republic)

0x0405

Czech_CI_AS

1250

Danish (Denmark)

0x0406

Danish_Norwegian_CI_AS

1252

Dari (Afghanistan)

0x048c

Dari_100_CI_AS

1256

Divehi (Maldives)

0x0465

Not available at server level

Unicode

Dutch (Belgium)

0x0813

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Dutch (Netherlands)

0x0413

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Australia)

0x0c09

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Belize)

0x2809

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Canada)

0x1009

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Caribbean)

0x2409

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (India)

0x4009

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

English (Ireland)

0x1809

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Jamaica)

0x2009

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Malaysia)

0x4409

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

English (New Zealand)

0x1409

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Philippines)

0x3409

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Singapore)

0x4809

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

English (South Africa)

0x1c09

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (Trinidad and Tobago)

0x2c09

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (United Kingdom)

0x0809

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

English (United States)

0x0409

SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS

1252

English (Zimbabwe)

0x3009

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Estonian (Estonia)

0x0425

Estonian_CI_AS

1257

Faroese (Faroe Islands)

0x0438

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Filipino (Philippines)

0x0464

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Finnish (Finland)

0x040b

Finnish_Swedish_CI_AS

1252

French (Belgium)

0x080c

French_CI_AS

1252

French (Canada)

0x0c0c

French_CI_AS

1252

French (France)

0x040c

French_CI_AS

1252

French (Luxembourg)

0x140c

French_CI_AS

1252

French (Monaco)

0x180c

French_CI_AS

1252

French (Switzerland)

0x100c

French_CI_AS

1252

Frisian (Netherlands)

0x0462

Frisian_100_CI_AS

1252

Galician (Spain)

0x0456

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Georgian (Georgia)

0x0437

Cyrillic_General_100_CI_AS

1251

Georgian (Georgia)

0x10437

Georgian_Modern_Sort_CI_AS

German - Phone Book Sort (DIN)

0x10407

German_PhoneBook_CI_AS

1252

German (Austria)

0x0c07

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

German (Germany)

0x0407

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

German (Liechtenstein)

0x1407

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

German (Luxembourg)

0x1007

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

German (Switzerland)

0x0807

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Greek (Greece)

0x0408

Greek_CI_AS

1253

Greenlandic (Greenland)

0x046f

Danish_Greenlandic_100_CI_AS

1252

Gujarati (India)

0x0447

Not available at server level

Unicode

Hausa (Nigeria, Latin)

0x0468

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Hebrew (Israel)

0x040d

Hebrew_CI_AS

1255

Hindi (India)

0x0439

Not available at server level

Unicode

Hungarian (Hungary)

0x040e

Hungarian_CI_AS

1250

Hungarian Technical Sort

0x1040e

Hungarian_Technical_CI_AS

1250

Icelandic (Iceland)

0x040f

Icelandic_CI_AS

1252

Igbo (Nigeria)

0x0470

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Indonesian (Indonesia)

0x0421

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Inuktitut (Canada, Latin)

0x085d

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Inuktitut (Syllabics) Canada

0x045d

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Irish (Ireland)

0x083c

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Italian (Italy)

0x0410

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Italian (Switzerland)

0x0810

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Japanese (Japan XJIS)

0x0411

Japanese_CI_AS

932

Japanese (Japan)

0x040411

Japanese_Bushu_Kakusu_100_CI_AS

932

Kannada (India)

0x044b

Not available at server level

Unicode

Kazakh (Kazakhstan)

0x043f

Kazakh_90_CI_AS

1251

Khmer (Cambodia)

0x0453

Not available at server level

Unicode

K'iche (Guatemala)

0x0486

Modern_Spanish_100_CI_AS

1252

Kinyarwanda (Rwanda)

0x0487

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Konkani (India)

0x0457

Not available at server level

Unicode

Korean (Korea Dictionary Sort)

0x0412

Korean_Wansung_CI_AS

949

Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan)

0x0440

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Lao (Lao PDR)

0x0454

Not available at server level

Unicode

Latvian (Latvia)

0x0426

Latvian_CI_AS

1257

Lithuanian (Lithuania)

0x0427

Lithuanian_CI_AS

1257

Lower Sorbian (Germany)

0x082e

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Luxembourgish (Luxembourg)

0x046e

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Macedonian (Macedonia, FYROM)

0x042f

Macedonian_FYROM_90_CI_AS

1251

Malay (Brunei Darussalam)

0x083e

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Malay (Malaysia)

0x043e

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Malayalam (India)

0x044c

Not available at server level

Unicode

Maltese (Malta)

0x043a

Maltese_100_CI_AS

1252

Maori (New Zealand)

0x0481

Maori_100_CI_AS

1252

Mapudungun (Chile)

0x047a

Mapudungan_100_CI_AS

1252

Marathi (India)

0x044e

Not available at server level

Unicode

Mohawk (Canada)

0x047c

Mohawk_100_CI_AS

1252

Mongolian (Mongolia)

0x0450

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Mongolian (PRC)

0x0850

Cyrillic_General_100_CI_AS

1251

Nepali (Nepal)

0x0461

Not available at server level

Unicode

Norwegian (Bokmål, Norway)

0x0414

Norwegian_100_CI_AS

1252

Norwegian (Nynorsk, Norway)

0x0814

Norwegian_100_CI_AS

1252

Occitan (France)

0x0482

French_100_CI_AS

1252

Oriya (India)

0x0448

Not available at server level

Unicode

Pashto (Afghanistan)

0x0463

Not available at server level

Unicode

Persian (Iran)

0x0429

Persian_100_CI_AS

1256

Polish (Poland)

0x0415

Polish_CI_AS

1250

Portuguese (Brazil)

0x0416

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Portuguese (Portugal)

0x0816

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1252

Punjabi (India)

0x0446

Not available at server level

Unicode

Quechua (Bolivia)

0x046b

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Quechua (Ecuador)

0x086b

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Quechua (Peru)

0x0c6b

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Romanian (Romania)

0x0418

Romanian_CI_AS

1250

Romansh (Switzerland)

0x0417

Romansh_100_CI_AS

1252

Russian (Russia)

0x0419

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Sami (Inari, Finland)

0x243b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Lule, Norway)

0x103b

Sami_Norway_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Lule, Sweden)

0x143b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Northern, Finland)

0x0c3b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Northern, Norway)

0x043b

Sami_Norway_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Northern, Sweden)

0x083b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Skolt, Finland)

0x203b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Southern, Norway)

0x183b

Sami_Norway_100_CI_AS

1252

Sami (Southern, Sweden)

0x1c3b

Sami_Sweden_Finland_100_CI_AS

1252

Sanskrit (India)

0x044f

Not available at server level

Unicode

Serbian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyrillic)

0x1c1a

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Serbian (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latin)

0x181a

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1250

Serbian (Serbia, Cyrillic)

0x0c1a

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Serbian (Serbia, Latin)

0x081a

Latin1_General_CI_AS

1250

Sesotho sa Leboa/Northern Sotho (South Africa)

0x046c

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Setswana/Tswana (South Africa)

0x0432

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Sinhala (Sri Lanka)

0x045b

Not available at server level

Unicode

Slovak (Slovakia)

0x041b

Slovak_CI_AS

1250

Slovenian (Slovenia)

0x0424

Slovenian_CI_AS

1250

Spanish (Argentina)

0x2c0a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Bolivia)

0x400a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Chile)

0x340a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Colombia)

0x240a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Costa Rica)

0x140a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Dominican Republic)

0x1c0a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Ecuador)

0x300a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (El Salvador)

0x440a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Guatemala)

0x100a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Honduras)

0x480a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Mexico)

0x080a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Nicaragua)

0x4c0a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Panama)

0x180a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Paraguay)

0x3c0a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Peru)

0x280a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Puerto Rico)

0x500a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Spain)

0x0c0a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Spain, Traditional Sort)

0x040a

Traditional_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (United States)

0x540a

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Uruguay)

0x380a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Spanish (Venezuela)

0x200a

Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

1252

Swahili (Kenya)

0x0441

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Swedish (Finland)

0x081d

Finnish_Swedish_CI_AS

1252

Swedish (Sweden)

0x041d

Finnish_Swedish_CI_AS

1252

Syriac (Syria)

0x045a

Not available at server level

Unicode

Tajik (Tajikistan)

0x0428

Cyrillic_General_100_CI_AS

1251

Tamazight (Algeria, Latin)

0x085f

Tamazight_100_CI_AS

1252

Tamil (India)

0x0449

Not available at server level

Unicode

Tatar (Russia)

0x0444

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Telugu (India)

0x044a

Not available at server level

Unicode

Thai (Thailand)

0x041e

Thai_CI_AS

874

Tibetan (PRC)

0x0451

Not available at server level

Unicode

Turkish (Turkey)

0x041f

Turkish_CI_AS

1254

Turkmen (Turkmenistan)

0x0442

Turkmen_100_CI_AS

1250

Uighur (PRC)

0x0480

Uighur_100_CI_AS

1256

Ukrainian (Ukraine)

0x0422

Ukrainian_100_CI_AS

1251

Upper Sorbian (Germany)

0x042e

Upper_Sorbian_100_CI_AS

1252

Urdu (Pakistan)

0x0420

Urdu_100_CI_AS

1256

Uzbek (Uzbekistan, Cyrillic)

0x0843

Cyrillic_General_CI_AS

1251

Uzbek (Uzbekistan, Latin)

0x0443

Uzbek_Latin_90_CI_AS

1254

Vietnamese (Vietnam)

0x042a

Vietnamese_CI_AS

1258

Welsh (United Kingdom)

0x0452

Welsh_100_CI_AS

1252

Wolof (Senegal)

0x0488

French_100_CI_AS

1252

Xhosa/isiXhosa (South Africa)

0x0434

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Yakut (Russia)

0x0485

Yakut_100_CI_AS

1251

Yi (PRC)

0x0478

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Yoruba (Nigeria)

0x046a

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

Zulu/isiZulu (South Africa)

0x0435

Latin1_General_100_CI_AS

1252

See Also