SQL Sorting Rules???

Question

SQL Sorting Rules???

rizzefcazz

Newbie

Points: 4
More actions
August 15, 2014 at 1:36 pm

#294548

Guys,
i am sure this is a silly issue however i cant figure this out..
I need to know why sql server 2005 with collation SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS (both on server, DB and table) sorts non-alphanumeric characters in a certain way.
I am expecting the sorting to be done based on the Unicode value of the first character unicode(substring(upper(col1),1,1).
However the sorting does not follow this rule at all.. see example below.
Note that the Unicode value 58 is sorted before 49 and 123 before 49..
Please help me understanding how the sorting rule is applied by MSSQL!! 🙂
/****** Object: Table [dbo].[table_3] Script Date: 8/15/2014 3:25:21 PM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[table_3](
[col1] [nvarchar](200) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
insert into table_3 (col1)
select
'!"#$%&''()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~ '
union all
select
'&*(^)PO<>012ABC@'
union all
select
':;<=>?@ABc1678 '
union all
select
'{}ABC456rtyGHijkl_)('
union all
select
'{ab}c|":eFTY34'
union all
select
'12345abc#$'
union all
select
'ABC123)#$.,/;''ghtf'
union all
select
'abcd678_)(&^'
union all
select
'ae~!#1234DABCTY '
union all
select
'CAYMANABC1d'
select SERVERPROPERTY(N'Collation')
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
(1 row(s) affected)
select upper(col1), substring(upper(col1),1,1),UNICODE(substring(upper(col1),1,1)) from table_3 order by upper(col1)
SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
(1 row(s) affected)
-------------------------------------------------- ---- -----------
!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQR ! 33
&*(^)PO<>012ABC@ & 38
:;<=>?@ABC1678 : 58
{}ABC456RTYGHIJKL_)( { 123
{AB}C|":EFTY34 { 123
12345ABC#$ 1 49
ABC123)#$.,/;'GHTF A 65
ABCD678_)(&^ A 65
AE~!#1234DABCTY A 65
CAYMANABC1D C 67
(10 row(s) affected)

Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 1

SQL Server doesn't order based on unicode values. The collation defines order to a certain point. Why do you need to understand the order of non-alphanumeric characters?

Maybe you could use this as a test:

WITH E1(N) AS (

SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL

SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1

), --10E+1 or 10 rows

E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows

E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max

cteTally(N) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4

)

SELECT N, NCHAR(N) ch

FROM cteTally

ORDER BY ch

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

rizzefcazz Newbie Points: 4 More actions · Answer 2

Hi, thank you for your response.

We need to provide functional specs for unit/business testing. On our documentation we assumed that the sorting was based on Unicode however this is not how the system behaves.

We need to describe the actual behavior.

Thanks again.

Luis Cazares (8/15/2014)
SQL Server doesn't order based on unicode values. The collation defines order to a certain point. Why do you need to understand the order of non-alphanumeric characters?
Maybe you could use this as a test:
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
), --10E+1 or 10 rows
E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b), --10E+2 or 100 rows
E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b), --10E+4 or 10,000 rows max
cteTally(N) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
)
SELECT N, NCHAR(N) ch
FROM cteTally
ORDER BY ch

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 3

You can find some reference here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms143515(v=sql.90).aspx

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

rizzefcazz Newbie Points: 4 More actions · Answer 4

Thanks, saw that but the info provided is not specific or does not reflect the actual behavior.

Luis Cazares (8/15/2014)
You can find some reference here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms143515(v=sql.90).aspx

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 5

rizzefcazz (8/15/2014)
Thanks, saw that but the info provided is not specific or does not reflect the actual behavior.
Luis Cazares (8/15/2014)
You can find some reference here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms143515(v=sql.90).aspx

Why not? It never states that it will sort based on unicode values.

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

rizzefcazz Newbie Points: 4 More actions · Answer 6

rizzefcazz

Newbie

Points: 4

August 18, 2014 at 7:07 am

#1738845

Anyone else with any suggestion?