Collation Implementation Types

MySQL implements several types of collations:

Simple collations for 8-bit character sets

This kind of collation is implemented using an array of 256 weights that defines a one-to-one mapping from character codes to weights. latin1_swedish_ci is an example. It is a case-insensitive collation, so the uppercase and lowercase versions of a character have the same weights and they compare as equal.

mysql> SET NAMES 'latin1' COLLATE 'latin1_swedish_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> SELECT HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('a')), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('A'));
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('a')) | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('A')) |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
| 41 | 41 |
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)
mysql> SELECT 'a' = 'A';
+-----------+
| 'a' = 'A' |
+-----------+
| 1 |
+-----------+
1 row in set (0.12 sec)

For implementation instructions, see , "Adding a Simple Collation to an 8-Bit Character Set".

Complex collations for 8-bit character sets

This kind of collation is implemented using functions in a C source file that define how to order characters, as described in , "Adding a Character Set".

Collations for non-Unicode multi-byte character sets

For this type of collation, 8-bit (single-byte) and multi-byte characters are handled differently. For 8-bit characters, character codes map to weights in case-insensitive fashion. (For example, the single-byte characters 'a' and 'A' both have a weight of 0x41.) For multi-byte characters, there are two types of relationship between character codes and weights:

Weights equal character codes. sjis_japanese_ci is an example of this kind of collation. The multi-byte character 'ぢ' has a character code of 0x82C0, and the weight is also 0x82C0.

mysql> CREATE TABLE t1
 -> (c1 VARCHAR(2) CHARACTER SET sjis COLLATE sjis_japanese_ci);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('a'),('A'),(0x82C0);
Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT c1, HEX(c1), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) FROM t1;
+------+---------+------------------------+
| c1 | HEX(c1) | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) |
+------+---------+------------------------+
| a | 61 | 41 |
| A | 41 | 41 |
| ぢ | 82C0 | 82C0 |
+------+---------+------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Character codes map one-to-one to weights, but a code is not necessarily equal to the weight. gbk_chinese_ci is an example of this kind of collation. The multi-byte character '膰' has a character code of 0x81B0 but a weight of 0xC286.

mysql> CREATE TABLE t1
 -> (c1 VARCHAR(2) CHARACTER SET gbk COLLATE gbk_chinese_ci);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.33 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('a'),('A'),(0x81B0);
Query OK, 3 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 3 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT c1, HEX(c1), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) FROM t1;
+------+---------+------------------------+
| c1 | HEX(c1) | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) |
+------+---------+------------------------+
| a | 61 | 41 |
| A | 41 | 41 |
| 膰 | 81B0 | C286 |
+------+---------+------------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

For implementation instructions, see , "Adding a Character Set".

Collations for Unicode multi-byte character sets

Some of these collations are based on the Unicode Collation Algorithm (UCA), others are not.

Non-UCA collations have a one-to-one mapping from character code to weight. In MySQL, such collations are case insensitive and accent insensitive. utf8_general_ci is an example: 'a', 'A', 'À', and 'á' each have different character codes but all have a weight of 0x0041 and compare as equal.

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_general_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> CREATE TABLE t1
 -> (c1 CHAR(1) CHARACTER SET UTF8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO t1 VALUES ('a'),('A'),('À'),('á');
Query OK, 4 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 4 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> SELECT c1, HEX(c1), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) FROM t1;
+------+---------+------------------------+
| c1 | HEX(c1) | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING(c1)) |
+------+---------+------------------------+
| a | 61 | 0041 |
| A | 41 | 0041 |
| À | C380 | 0041 |
| á | C3A1 | 0041 |
+------+---------+------------------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

UCA-based collations in MariaDB have these properties:

If a character has weights, each weight uses 2 bytes (16 bits).
A character may have zero weights (or an empty weight). In this case, the character is ignorable. Example: 'U+0000 NULL' does not have a weight and is ignorable.

A character may have one weight. Example: 'a' has a weight of 0x0E33.

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.05 sec)
mysql> SELECT HEX('a'), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('a'));
+----------+-------------------------+
| HEX('a') | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('a')) |
+----------+-------------------------+
| 61 | 0E33 |
+----------+-------------------------+
1 row in set (0.02 sec)

A character may have many weights. This is an expansion. Example: The German letter 'ß' (SZ ligature, or SHARP S) has a weight of 0x0FEA0FEA.

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> SELECT HEX('ß'), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('ß'));
+-----------+--------------------------+
| HEX('ß') | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('ß')) |
+-----------+--------------------------+
| C39F | 0FEA0FEA |
+-----------+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Many characters may have one weight. This is a contraction. Example: 'ch' is a single letter in Czech and has a weight of 0x0EE2.

mysql> SET NAMES 'utf8' COLLATE 'utf8_czech_ci';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)
mysql> SELECT HEX('ch'), HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('ch'));
+-----------+--------------------------+
| HEX('ch') | HEX(WEIGHT_STRING('ch')) |
+-----------+--------------------------+
| 6368 | 0EE2 |
+-----------+--------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

A many-characters-to-many-weights mapping is also possible (this is contraction with expansion), but is not supported by MySQL.

For implementation instructions, for a non-UCA collation, see , "Adding a Character Set". For a UCA collation, see , "Adding a UCA Collation to a Unicode Character Set".

Miscellaneous collations