User's Guide

Part III. Using SQL Anywhere

Chapter 22. Database Collations

The best collation to use varies depending primarily on the language of the user and the code pages available in the user's machine. This will, of course, vary from one country or region to another.

The following table shows the built-in collations provided with SQL Anywhere. The table and the corresponding collations were derived from several manuals from IBM concerning National Language Support, subject to the restrictions mentioned above. (This table represents the best information available at the time of writing. Due to recent rapid geopolitical changes, the table may contain names for countries that no longer exist.)

Country	Language	Primary Code Page	Primary Collation	Secondary Code Page	Secondary Collation
Argentina	Spanish	850	850ESP	437	437ESP
Australia	English	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
Austria	German	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Belgium	Belgian Dutch	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Belgium	Belgian French	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Belarus	Belarussian	855	855CYR
Brazil	Portuguese	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Bulgaria	Bulgarian	855	855CYR	850	850CYR
Canada	Cdn French	850	850LATIN1	863	863LATIN1
Canada	English	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
Croatia	Croatian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Czech Republic	Czech	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Denmark	Danish	850	850DAN
Finland	Finnish	850	850SVE	437	437SVE
France	French	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Germany	German	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Greece	Greek	869	869ELL	850	850ELL
Hungary	Hungarian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Iceland	Icelandic	850	850ISL	861	861ISL
Ireland	English	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Israel	Hebrew	862	862HEB	856	856HEB
Italy	Italian	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Mexico	Spanish	850	850ESP	437	437ESP
Nether-lands	Dutch	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
New Zealand	English	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
Norway	Norwegian	865	865NOR	850	850NOR
Peru	Spanish	850	850ESP	437	437ESP
Poland	Polish	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Portugal	Portuguese	850	850LATIN1	860	860LATIN1
Romania	Romanian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Russia	Russian	866	866RUS	850	850RUS
S. Africa	Afrikaans	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
S. Africa	English	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
Slovak Republic	Slovakian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Slovenia	Slovenian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Spain	Spanish	850	850ESP	437	437ESP
Sweden	Swedish	850	850SVE	437	437SVE
Switzer-land	French	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Switzer-land	German	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Switzer-land	Italian	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
Turkey	Turkish	857	857TRK	850	850TRK
UK	English	850	850LATIN1	437	437LATIN1
USA	English	437	437LATIN1	850	850LATIN1
Venezuela	Spanish	850	850ESP	437	437ESP
Yugoslavia	Maced-onian	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2
Yugoslavia	Serbian Cyrillic	855	855CYR	852	852CYR
Yugoslavia	Serbian Latin	852	852LATIN2	850	850LATIN2

When creating a new database

A user creating a new database should find the line with the country/language that they wish to use, then pick either the primary or secondary collation, depending on which code page is in use in their computer. (The chcp command will display the current code page number.) If their particular combination is not present, then another line with a satisfactory combination may be used, or a custom collation may be required.

International aspects of case sensitivity

SQL Anywhere is case preserving and case insensitive for identifiers, such as table names and column names. The names are stored in the case that they are created in, but any access to the identifiers is done in a case-insensitive manner.

For example, the names of the SQL Anywhere system tables are held in upper case (SYSDOMAIN, SYSTABLE, and so on), but access is case insensitive, so that the two following statements are generally equivalent:

     SELECT *
     FROM systable

     SELECT *
     FROM SYSTABLE

The equivalence of upper and lower case characters is enforced in the collation. There are some collations where particular care may be needed when assuming case insensitivity of identifiers.

Example

In the Turkish 857TRK collation, the lower case i does not have the character I as its upper case equivalent. Therefore, despite the case insensitivity of identifiers, the following two statements are not equivalent in this collation:

     SELECT *
     FROM sysdomain

     SELECT *
     FROM SYSDOMAIN