SQL-Server is ignoring my COLLATION when I'm using LIKE operator

collation, sql-like, sql-server, sql-server-2008

Solution

You need to change the collation of the table COLUMN itself.

select collation_name, *
from sys.columns
where object_id = object_id('tblname')
  and name = 'stringdata';

If you're lucky it is as easy as (example)

alter table tblname alter column stringdata varchar(20) collate Modern_Spanish_CI_AS

But if you have constraints and/or schema bound references, it can get complicated. It can be very difficult to work with a database with mixed collations, so you may want to re-collate all the table columns.

Problem

I'm working with Spanish database so when I'm looking for and "aeiou" I can also get "áéíóú" or "AEIOU" or "ÁÉÍÓÚ", in a where clause like this: ``` SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE stringData like '%perez%' ``` I'm expencting: ``` * perez * PEREZ * Pérez * PÉREZ ``` So I changed my database to collation: Modern_Spanish_CI_AI And I get only: ``` * perez * PEREZ ``` But if I do: ``` SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE stringData like '%perez%' COLLATE Modern_Spanish_CI_AI ``` I get all results OK, so my question is, why if my database is COLLATE Modern_Spanish_CI_AI I have to set the same collation to my query??? I'm using SQL-Server 2008

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