In SQL Server 2005, you can set collations at the following levels:

 

-         Server Level

 

o        You set the collation of the server at the time of setup.

o        The only way to change that is to re-install SQL Server with the right collation.

o        To find out the existing collation of your server, you can use:

 

SELECT CONVERT (varchar, SERVERPROPERTY('collation'))

 

SELECT * from ::fn_helpcollations()

 

-         Database Level

 

o        This is specified at the time of database creation using the COLLATE clause

o        You can easily change the database level collation by using the ALTER DATABASE statement

o        You can find out the database collation as follows:

 

SELECT CONVERT (varchar, DATABASEPROPERTYEX('database_name','collation'))

 

-         Column Level

 

o        You can specify this at column creation using the COLLATE clause of the CREATE TABLE statement.

o        It can easily be altered by using the ALTER TABLE statement

o        To find out the column collation, you can use sp_help on the table to find out the collation of each column.

 

Collation could also be specified at the Expression that you are trying to evaluate.