Question

I am using sql server 2008 and I’m trying to build a query for displaying some overall results from a single sql table.
I want to display count(fieldname) for each date, for example I want to know how often the name “izla” is repeated in the table for each date but it could be also “IZLA” or “Izla”, so i must find a way to group this data together as one and find count for the three of them.

The problem is that if i try using uppercase or lowercase so that they are considered automatically the same I have the problem: when izla is converted to upper it becomes İZLA or on the other hand when IZLA is converted to lowercase it is displayed ızla.

The big question is how can i group this data together? Maybe the problem comes from using nvarchar but i need the column type to be like that (can’t change it).

Answer 1

When you group, you should use an Accent Insensitive collation. You can add this directly to your group by clause. The following is an example:

Declare @Temp Table(Data nvarchar(100))

Insert Into @Temp Values(N'izla')
Insert Into @Temp Values(N'İZLA')
Insert Into @Temp Values(N'IZLA')
Insert Into @Temp Values(N'Izla')

Select  Data, 
        Count(*) 
From    @Temp 
Group By Data

Select  Data Collate Latin1_General_CI_AI, 
        Count(*) 
From    @Temp 
Group By Data Collate Latin1_General_CI_AI

When you run this example, you will see that the first query creates two rows (with count 3 and count 1). The second example uses an accent insensitve collation for the grouping, so all 4 items are grouped together.

I used Latin1_General_CI_AI in my example. I suggest you examine the collation of the column you are using and then use a collation that most closely matches by changing the AS on the end to AI.