In Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000, it is not required to separately specify code page and sort order for character data, and the collation used for Unicode data. Instead, specify the collation name and sorting rules to use. The term, collation, refers to a set of rules that determine how data is sorted and compared. Character data is sorted using rules that define the correct character sequence, with options for specifying case-sensitivity, accent marks, kana character types, and character width. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 collations include these groupings:
Windows collations define rules for storing character data based on the rules defined for an associated Windows locale. The base Windows collation rules specify which alphabet or language is used when dictionary sorting is applied, as well as the code page used to store non-Unicode character data. For more information, see Collations.
SQL collations are provided for compatibility with sort orders in earlier versions of Microsoft SQL Server. For more information, see Using SQL Collations.
When you set up SQL Server 2000, it is important to use the correct collation settings. You can change collation settings after running Setup, but you must rebuild the databases and reload the data. It is recommended that you develop a standard within your organization for these options. Many server-to-server activities can fail if the collation settings are not consistent across servers.