ASA Database Administration Guide
International Languages and Character Sets
Understanding collations
When you create a database, Adaptive Server Anywhere chooses a default collation based on operating system language and character set settings. In most cases, the default collation is a suitable choice, but you can also explicitly choose a collation to match your needs from the wide selection of supplied collations.
In some cases, Adaptive Server Anywhere supports more than one collation for a particular language. Different collations vary in the characters they include and in the way they sort special characters, including ligatures (characters consisting of two or more characters joined together) and accented characters. You should choose a collation that uses a character set and sort order that are appropriate for the data in your database.
For more information about sorting of data and international features, see Adaptive Server Anywhere international features.
Another consideration when you choose a collation is whether to use an ANSI or an OEM collation. OEM collations are suited to character-mode applications (those using the console or command prompt window) in Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP. ANSI collations are designed for Windows environments, and are recommended in the majority of cases.
For more information about the differences between and ANSI and OEM collations, see ANSI or OEM? and ANSI and OEM code pages in Windows .
Last resort collationIf Adaptive Server Anywhere cannot locate a specific collation based on your operating system's character set and language, the Adaptive Server Anywhere registry setting, or the ASCHARSET environment variable, ISO_BINENG becomes the default, regardless of which operating system you are using.If this is not suitable for your requirements, you can rebuild the database and choose a different collation. For more information about changing collations, see Changing a database from one collation to another. |
For information about creating a database with a specific collation, see Creating a database with a named collation.