Custom Collation

Overview

Use custom collation to specify language-specific rules for string comparison, such as rules for letter case and accent marks in your data source.

Access and Setup

To configure custom collation for a data source:

  1. Navigate to the Data Sources.

  2. In the data source editor, go to the Advanced settings tab.

  3. Locate the Custom Collation section to adjust collation settings.

    Accessing Custom Collation Settings in Data Source Configuration

Configuration Details

Enabling Custom Collation

  • Use Custom Collation: Check this option to enable and customize collation settings specific to this data source.

Locale

  • Locale: Choose the appropriate locale that matches the language and regional standards for which the data is intended. This setting determines the basic rules for character comparison.
  • None: No locale-aware collation is applied; string comparison falls back to the deployment's default (binary) collation.

Strength Levels

Customize how intensively the text data is compared and sorted by selecting a strength level:

  • 0 - None:

    • Function: No collation is applied, utilizing default system behaviors.
    • Ideal for: Situations where standard sorting is adequate without additional considerations.

  • 1 - Comparisons of the base characters only (Primary):

    • Function: Compares only the base characters, disregarding other differences like diacritics or case.
    • Ideal for: Basic alphabetical sorting where accents and case are not differentiated.

  • 2 - Comparisons up to secondary differences, such as diacritics (Secondary):

    • Function: Adds diacritic sensitivity to comparisons, considering accented characters as distinct.

    • Ideal for: Languages where accents modify the character’s meaning, enhancing sorting accuracy.

      Collation Strength2 Employee Sorting

  • 3 - Comparisons up to tertiary differences, such as case and letter variants (Tertiary):

    • Function: Includes case and letter variant differences in comparisons.
    • Ideal for: Ensuring case sensitivity in sorting, which can be critical in certain contexts like proper noun identification.

  • 4 - Punctuation when levels 1-3 ignore punctuation (Quaternary):

    • Function: Considers punctuation differences only when all other levels (primary to tertiary) are identical.
    • Ideal for: Detailed sorting where punctuation can influence data order and meaning, such as in programming code or legal documents.

  • 5 - Specific use case of tie breaker (Identical):

    • Function: Utilizes very fine distinctions, such as invisible characters and spaces, as a tiebreaker in comparisons.
    • Ideal for: Highly sensitive data environments where minute differences are crucial, often in legal or formal documents.

Conclusion

Configuring custom collation allows for enhanced flexibility and accuracy in data handling.

Information!

  • Make sure to support the index with the same custom collation as the data source for optimizing query performance.
  • The greater the Strength Level, the slower the query performance.