About Sort Orders

SQL Server has these sort orders. The default is Dictionary order, case-insensitive.

Dictionary Order, Case-insensitive

Binary Order

Dictionary Order, Case-sensitive

Dictionary Order, Case-insensitive, Uppercase Preference

Dictionary Order, Case-insensitive, Accent-insensitive

Additional Sort Orders for Code Page 850

Version 1.x - compatible Sort Order

Alternate Sort Orders

Scandinavian Sort Orders

Sort Order IDS

Performance Comparisons

Custom

The 1.x-compatible sort order applies only to code page 850.

Binary order is the fastest sort order, but strings sorted using Binary order are not necessarily listed in dictionary order. The dictionary sort orders are generally listed in the same order as in a standard dictionary, but each dictionary sort order has a different set of rules for sorting uppercase characters, lowercase characters, and characters with diacritical marks.

The following sections describe each of the sort order choices and give examples of how similar characters compare and sort for each. For performance comparisons, see Performance Comparisons.