Query to change table collation in SQL Server 2008

Question

In my database, one table collation is different than all the other tables.

I would like to change that table collation to be the same as all other tables.

Now, I can change a table collation by using SSMS Design but I would like to use query to change collation. Currently, my one table collation is Thai_CI_AS and I want to change collation is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS.

It's not possible to drop the table because it already contains data.

Answer 1

Never a bad idea to consult the documentation. Guessing at the source data type and NULLability; you can fill in the table/column names:

ALTER TABLE dbo.TableName ALTER COLUMN ColumnName
  NVARCHAR(255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NOT NULL;

If you can't check the documentation, Management Studio will sometimes show you the smart way to do something (though it doesn't always choose to do things the best way). Go into the design screen, change the collation, and instead of clicking OK, click the Script button.

Answer 2

This is a valid solution that I applied and tested resetting collation on one of jira database tables.

-- CHANGED COLUMN COLLATION PROPERLY ALTER TABLE [schemaName].[TableName] ALTER COLUMN [columnName] [varchar](255) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP437_CI_AI NOT NULL;

--Check string column collation for specified table --Lists all string columns with respective collation SELECT c.name, c.collation_name FROM SYS.COLUMNS c JOIN SYS.TABLES t ON t.object_id = c.object_id WHERE t.name = 'TableName' and c.collation_name is not null