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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>CREATE COLLATION</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="sql-createcast.html" title="CREATE CAST" /><link rel="next" href="sql-createconversion.html" title="CREATE CONVERSION" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">CREATE COLLATION</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-createcast.html" title="CREATE CAST">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html" title="SQL Commands">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">SQL Commands</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 11.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-createconversion.html" title="CREATE CONVERSION">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="refentry" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION"><div class="titlepage"></div><a id="id-1.9.3.59.1" class="indexterm"></a><div class="refnamediv"><h2><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE COLLATION</span></h2><p>CREATE COLLATION — define a new collation</p></div><div class="refsynopsisdiv"><h2>Synopsis</h2><pre class="synopsis">
CREATE COLLATION [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> (
[ LOCALE = <em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em>, ]
[ LC_COLLATE = <em class="replaceable"><code>lc_collate</code></em>, ]
[ LC_CTYPE = <em class="replaceable"><code>lc_ctype</code></em>, ]
[ PROVIDER = <em class="replaceable"><code>provider</code></em>, ]
[ VERSION = <em class="replaceable"><code>version</code></em> ]
)
CREATE COLLATION [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em> FROM <em class="replaceable"><code>existing_collation</code></em>
</pre></div><div class="refsect1" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION-DESCRIPTION"><h2>Description</h2><p>
<code class="command">CREATE COLLATION</code> defines a new collation using
the specified operating system locale settings,
or by copying an existing collation.
</p><p>
To be able to create a collation, you must
have <code class="literal">CREATE</code> privilege on the destination schema.
</p></div><div class="refsect1" id="id-1.9.3.59.6"><h2>Parameters</h2><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">IF NOT EXISTS</code></span></dt><dd><p>
Do not throw an error if a collation with the same name already exists.
A notice is issued in this case. Note that there is no guarantee that
the existing collation is anything like the one that would have been created.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
The name of the collation. The collation name can be
schema-qualified. If it is not, the collation is defined in the
current schema. The collation name must be unique within that
schema. (The system catalogs can contain collations with the
same name for other encodings, but these are ignored if the
database encoding does not match.)
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>locale</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
This is a shortcut for setting <code class="symbol">LC_COLLATE</code>
and <code class="symbol">LC_CTYPE</code> at once. If you specify this,
you cannot specify either of those parameters.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>lc_collate</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
Use the specified operating system locale for
the <code class="symbol">LC_COLLATE</code> locale category.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>lc_ctype</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
Use the specified operating system locale for
the <code class="symbol">LC_CTYPE</code> locale category.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>provider</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
Specifies the provider to use for locale services associated with this
collation. Possible values
are: <code class="literal">icu</code>,<a id="id-1.9.3.59.6.2.6.2.1.2" class="indexterm"></a>
<code class="literal">libc</code>.
<code class="literal">libc</code> is the default.
The available choices depend on the operating system and build options.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>version</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
Specifies the version string to store with the collation. Normally,
this should be omitted, which will cause the version to be computed
from the actual version of the collation as provided by the operating
system. This option is intended to be used
by <code class="command">pg_upgrade</code> for copying the version from an
existing installation.
</p><p>
See also <a class="xref" href="sql-altercollation.html" title="ALTER COLLATION"><span class="refentrytitle">ALTER COLLATION</span></a> for how to handle
collation version mismatches.
</p></dd><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>existing_collation</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
The name of an existing collation to copy. The new collation
will have the same properties as the existing one, but it
will be an independent object.
</p></dd></dl></div></div><div class="refsect1" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION-NOTES"><h2>Notes</h2><p>
Use <code class="command">DROP COLLATION</code> to remove user-defined collations.
</p><p>
See <a class="xref" href="collation.html#COLLATION-CREATE" title="23.2.2.3. Creating New Collation Objects">Section 23.2.2.3</a> for more information on how to create collations.
</p><p>
When using the <code class="literal">libc</code> collation provider, the locale must
be applicable to the current database encoding.
See <a class="xref" href="sql-createdatabase.html" title="CREATE DATABASE"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE DATABASE</span></a> for the precise rules.
</p></div><div class="refsect1" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION-EXAMPLES"><h2>Examples</h2><p>
To create a collation from the operating system locale
<code class="literal">fr_FR.utf8</code>
(assuming the current database encoding is <code class="literal">UTF8</code>):
</p><pre class="programlisting">
CREATE COLLATION french (locale = 'fr_FR.utf8');
</pre><p>
</p><p>
To create a collation using the ICU provider using German phone book sort order:
</p><pre class="programlisting">
CREATE COLLATION german_phonebook (provider = icu, locale = 'de-u-co-phonebk');
</pre><p>
</p><p>
To create a collation from an existing collation:
</p><pre class="programlisting">
CREATE COLLATION german FROM "de_DE";
</pre><p>
This can be convenient to be able to use operating-system-independent
collation names in applications.
</p></div><div class="refsect1" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION-COMPAT"><h2>Compatibility</h2><p>
There is a <code class="command">CREATE COLLATION</code> statement in the SQL
standard, but it is limited to copying an existing collation. The
syntax to create a new collation is
a <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> extension.
</p></div><div class="refsect1" id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION-SEEALSO"><h2>See Also</h2><span class="simplelist"><a class="xref" href="sql-altercollation.html" title="ALTER COLLATION"><span class="refentrytitle">ALTER COLLATION</span></a>, <a class="xref" href="sql-dropcollation.html" title="DROP COLLATION"><span class="refentrytitle">DROP COLLATION</span></a></span></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="sql-createcast.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="sql-commands.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="sql-createconversion.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">CREATE CAST </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> CREATE CONVERSION</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
