Changing the collation of a SQL Server 2012 database

Question

Alter Collation

I need to change the collation of one of our databases on a particular server from Latin1_General_CI_AS to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI so that it matches the rest of our databases.

The Problem

However, when I attempt to do this, I get the following error:

ALTER DATABASE failed. The default collation of database 'XxxxxXxxxxx' cannot be set to SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 5075)

My Research

My googling on the topic has revealed a number of articles which indicate that I need to export all the data, drop the database, re-create it with the correct collation, then re-import the data.

For example: Problem with database collation change (SQL Server 2008)

Obviously this is a significant task, especially since primary-foreign key relationships must be preserved, and our database is quite large (over ten million data rows).

My Question

Is there a way to change the collation of an existing SQL Server 2012 database which does not require exporting and re-importing all the data?

Alternatively, is there some tool or script(s) which can automate this process in a reliable manner?

Answer 1

The following works for me on SQL Server 2012:

ALTER DATABASE CURRENT COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI;

The accepted answer in the linked question is not entirely correct, at least not for SQL Server 2012. It says:

Ahh, this is one of the worst problems in SQL Server: you cannot change the collation once an object is created (this is true both for tables and databases...).

But I was just able to change the default collation and I have tables that are populated. The MSDN page for ALTER DATABASE states in the "Remarks" section, under "Changing the Database Collation":

Before you apply a different collation to a database, make sure that the following conditions are in place:

1. You are the only one currently using the database.

2. No schema-bound object depends on the collation of the database.

   If the following objects, which depend on the database collation, exist in the database, the ALTER DATABASE database_name COLLATE statement will fail. SQL Server will return an error message for each object blocking the ALTER action:

   • User-defined functions and views created with SCHEMABINDING.

   • Computed columns.

   • CHECK constraints.

   • Table-valued functions that return tables with character columns with collations inherited from the default database collation.

So, I would suggest making sure that the database is in Single-User mode, and that if you have any of those four items, that you:

• drop them
• change the collation
• and then re-add them

BUT, at that point all that has been changed is the Database's default Collation. The Collation of any existing columns in user tables (i.e. non-system tables) will still have the original Collation. If you want existing string columns -- CHAR, VARCHAR, NCHAR, NVARCHAR, and the deprecated TEXT and NTEXT -- to take on the new Collation, you need to change each of those columns individually. And, if there are any indexes defined on those columns, then those indexes will need to be dropped first (disabling is not enough) and created again after the ALTER COLUMN (other dependencies that would prevent the ALTER COLUMN would have already been dropped in order to get the ALTER DATABASE to work). The example below illustrates this behavior:

Test Setup

USE [tempdb];
SET NOCOUNT ON;

CREATE TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationParent
(
  [ChangeCollationParentID] INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
                    CONSTRAINT [PK_ChangeCollationParent]  PRIMARY KEY,
  ExtendedASCIIString VARCHAR(50) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL,
  UnicodeString NVARCHAR(50) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL
);

CREATE TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationChild
(
  [ChangeCollationChildID] INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1)
                    CONSTRAINT [PK_ChangeCollationChild]  PRIMARY KEY,
  [ChangeCollationParentID] INT NULL
                    CONSTRAINT [FK_ChangeCollationChild_ChangeCollationParent] FOREIGN KEY
                         REFERENCES dbo.ChangeCollationParent([ChangeCollationParentID]),
  ExtendedASCIIString VARCHAR(50) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL,
  UnicodeString NVARCHAR(50) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL
);

INSERT INTO dbo.ChangeCollationParent ([ExtendedASCIIString], [UnicodeString])
VALUES ('test1' + CHAR(200), N'test1' + NCHAR(200));
INSERT INTO dbo.ChangeCollationParent ([ExtendedASCIIString], [UnicodeString])
VALUES ('test2' + CHAR(170), N'test2' + NCHAR(170));


INSERT INTO dbo.ChangeCollationChild
         ([ChangeCollationParentID], [ExtendedASCIIString], [UnicodeString])
VALUES (1, 'testA ' + CHAR(200), N'testA ' + NCHAR(200));
INSERT INTO dbo.ChangeCollationChild
         ([ChangeCollationParentID], [ExtendedASCIIString], [UnicodeString])
VALUES (1, 'testB ' + CHAR(170), N'testB ' + NCHAR(170));

SELECT * FROM dbo.ChangeCollationParent;
SELECT * FROM dbo.ChangeCollationChild;

Test 1: Change column Collation with no dependencies

ALTER TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationParent
  ALTER COLUMN [ExtendedASCIIString] VARCHAR(50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI NULL;
ALTER TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationParent
  ALTER COLUMN [UnicodeString] NVARCHAR(50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI NULL;

ALTER TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationChild
  ALTER COLUMN [ExtendedASCIIString] VARCHAR(50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI NULL;
ALTER TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationChild
  ALTER COLUMN [UnicodeString] NVARCHAR(50) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AI NULL;

SELECT * FROM dbo.ChangeCollationParent;
SELECT * FROM dbo.ChangeCollationChild;

The ALTER COLUMN statements above complete successfully.

Test 2: Change column Collation with dependencies

-- First, create an index:
CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_ChangeCollationParent_ExtendedASCIIString]
  ON dbo.ChangeCollationParent ([ExtendedASCIIString] ASC);

-- Next, change the Collation back to the original setting:
ALTER TABLE dbo.ChangeCollationParent
  ALTER COLUMN [ExtendedASCIIString] VARCHAR(50) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS NULL;

This time, the ALTER COLUMN statement received the following error:

Msg 5074, Level 16, State 1, Line 60
The index 'IX_ChangeCollationParent_ExtendedASCIIString' is dependent on column 'ExtendedASCIIString'.
Msg 4922, Level 16, State 9, Line 60
ALTER TABLE ALTER COLUMN ExtendedASCIIString failed because one or more objects access this column.

ALSO, please be aware that the Collation of some string columns in database-scoped system catalog views (e.g. sys.objects, sys.columns, sys.indexes, etc) will change to the new Collation. If your code has JOINs to any of these string columns (i.e. name), then you might start getting Collation mismatch errors until you change the Collation on the joining columns in your user tables.

UPDATE:

If changing the Collation for the entire Instance is the desire, or an option, then there is an easier method that bypasses all of these restrictions. It is undocumented and hence unsupported (so if it doesn't work, Microsoft isn't going to help). However, it changes the Collation at all levels: Instance, all Database's, and all string columns in all User Tables. It does this, and avoids all of the typical restrictions, by simply updating the meta-data of the tables, etc to have the new Collation. It then drops and recreates all indexes that have string columns. There are also a few nuances to this method that might have impact, but are fixable. This method is the -q command-line switch of sqlservr.exe. I have documented all of the behaviors, including listing all of the potentially affected areas by doing such a wide-sweeping Collation change, in the following post:

Changing the Collation of the Instance, the Databases, and All Columns in All User Databases: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?