CHAR collation

CHAR data types, including CHAR, VARCHAR, and LONG VARCHAR, can use a collation that uses the SQL Anywhere Collation Algorithm or they can use the Unicode Collation Algorithm. In either case, the collation used is referred to as the CHAR collation.

NCHAR collation

NCHAR data types, including NCHAR, NVARCHAR, and LONG NVARCHAR, can use the Unicode Collation Algorithm or can use the UTF8BIN collation, which uses the SQL Anywhere Collation Algorithm.

Choosing case and accent sensitivity

When a SQL Anywhere database is created, if case sensitivity is not specified, then it is case insensitive. It can be made case sensitive by specifying the appropriate option. It is not possible to change the case sensitivity after the database has been created without rebuilding the database.

The case sensitivity for the database determines the case sensitivity for both the SACA and UCA collations, and so it also determines the case sensitivity of both the CHAR and NCHAR collations.

When a SQL Anywhere database is created, if accent sensitivity is not specified, then it is accent insensitive. It can be made accent sensitive by specifying the appropriate option. It is not possible to change the accent sensitivity after the database has been created without rebuilding the database.

The accent sensitivity for the database affects only the UCA collation, whether it is used for the CHAR or NCHAR collations or both. If you choose SACA collations for both CHAR and NCHAR collations, then the options for accent sensitivity have no effect. Accent sensitivity is an attribute of SACA collations and cannot be specified using the options provided when creating the database.