Beware of Mixing Collations

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Beware of Mixing Collations - Part 1

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Greg Larsen

Posted Saturday, December 14, 2002 12:00 AM

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Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/glarsen/collate_part1.asp

Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

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Post #8807

David.Poole

Posted Thursday, December 19, 2002 2:20 AM

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I've come across this problem in SQL 6.5.

Pre-SQL2000 my solution was to have a test machine that I could set up SQL Server 6.5 with whatever character set and sort order I needed to restore other peoples data, then bcp it across onto the production server.

Pure brute force, but strangely satisfying!

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Post #49609

Steven.

Posted Thursday, December 19, 2002 3:56 AM

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Beware is right, but as long as it is known to the developers etc I have found it isn't too much of a problem.

I have had to mix collations on a sql 2000 server (Binary sort order server with dbs, plus a single non case sensitive db). Once you remember that tempdb is case sensitive etc it is not too much of a problem.

This has even had the bonus of helping enforce naming standards since tables in the other DB's and tempdb need to be exact.

Steven

Post #49610

Russel Loski

Posted Thursday, December 19, 2002 6:19 AM

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Can mixed collations affect performance?

I created a new server and database with a different default collation when I took over our small SQL Server environment. In transferring the objects from the existing server to the new production server, I used the scripts created by EM. For some reason, EM puts collation statements on all character based fields.

We connect to SQL Server from Access and for several months the applications would crawl. One night I came in and changed all of the collations to use the defaults. That morning the applications ran real fast and it still runs well. I may have done something else as a side consequence, but the only thing I remember is changing the collations.

Is this a known issue? I don't have the lab facilities to test it.

Russ

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Post #49611

dwestmore

Posted Friday, December 20, 2002 8:05 AM

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I've had nasty problems with the collation settings. The strange thing is I had never explicitly done anything to mess about with collation settings, it seemed to happen spontaneously. I work in Italy, some kind of mess up between English and Italian versions of SQL and/or Windows.

I did find a script (I think on this site, don't ask me where) for easily changing collation settings on all tables in a DB, if anyone is interested I can send it.

Post #49612

tomstraetman

Posted Friday, December 20, 2002 8:16 AM

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that would be great, can you send me the script to tom.straetman@pi.be

thx

Post #49613

Greg Larsen

Posted Friday, December 20, 2002 10:19 AM

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I'd like that script. Can you send it to me at greg.larsen@doh.wa.gov

Gregory Larsen, DBA

If you looking for SQL Server Examples check out my website at http://www.geocities.com/sqlserverexamples

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Post #49614

Andy Warren

Posted Tuesday, December 24, 2002 1:45 PM

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Maybe of you guys can either find or repost the script and post the link back here? Others will be interested Im sure.

Greg, have you looked to see what performance implications of specifying a collation in the join? I use the technique myself when I need a case sensitive join on data that is stored case insensitive.

Andy
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Post #49615

Greg Larsen

Posted Wednesday, December 25, 2002 7:49 PM

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No I have not checked into the performance issues. I might be interesting to see if there are any issues here.

If I get the script I will make sure it gets posted.

Gregory Larsen, DBA

If you looking for SQL Server Examples check out my website at http://www.geocities.com/sqlserverexamples

Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

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Post #49616

Kevin R. Zakoski

Posted Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:03 AM

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We've run into similar problems, but it may be more important to state that it also depends on where and how a #temp table is created in TempDB.

A 'Create Table #Temp' statement will default the tables collation to that of TempDB's. If you create the #temp table with a SELECT INTO #Temp from a DB with a different collation than TempDB, the #Temp table will have the collation of DB it was run from. The same holds true for regular tables you create outside your DB. When we ran into our problem, it wasn't apparent what exactly was occuring until we removed the '#' from the table name and created static tables which we could look at in more detail to resolve our problem.

My suggestion is, if you must use different collations on the same server, it's best to adopt a standard for creating #temp tables within your code. If you mix Creates and Select INTO for #Temp tables in your code you will eventually get burnt.

Post #49617

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