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GoogleSQL for BigQuery supports collation. Collation defines rules to sort and compare strings in certain operations, such as conditional expressions, joins, and groupings.

By default, GoogleSQL sorts strings case-sensitively. This means that a and A are treated as different letters, and Z would come before a.

Example default sorting: Apple, Zebra, apple

By contrast, collation lets you sort and compare strings case-insensitively or according to specific language rules.

Example case-insensitive collation: Apple, apple, Zebra

To customize collation for a collation-supported operation, you typically assign a collation specification to at least one string in the operation inputs. Some operations can't use collation, but can propagate collation through them.

Collation is useful when you need fine-tuned control over how values are sorted, joined, or grouped in tables.

Operations affected by collation

The following example query operations are affected by collation when sorting and comparing strings:

Operations that propagate collation

Collation can pass through some query operations to other parts of a query. When collation passes through an operation in a query, this is known as propagation. During propagation:

• If an input contains no collation specification or an empty collation specification and another input contains an explicitly defined collation, the explicitly defined collation is used for all of the inputs.
• All inputs with a non-empty explicitly defined collation specification must have the same type of collation specification, otherwise an error is thrown.

GoogleSQL has several functions, operators, and expressions that can propagate collation.

In the following example, the 'und:ci' collation specification is propagated from the character column to the ORDER BY operation.

-- With collation
SELECT *
FROM UNNEST([
  COLLATE('B', 'und:ci'),
  'b',
  'a'
]) AS character
ORDER BY character

/*-----------+
 | character |
 +-----------+
 | a         |
 | B         |
 | b         |
 +-----------*/

-- Without collation
SELECT *
FROM UNNEST([
  'B',
  'b',
  'a'
]) AS character
ORDER BY character

/*-----------+
 | character |
 +-----------+
 | B         |
 | a         |
 | b         |
 +-----------*/

Functions

The following example functions propagate collation.

Operators

The following example operators propagate collation.

Expressions

The following example expressions propagate collation.

Additional features that support collation

These features in BigQuery generally support collation:

Where you can assign a collation specification

You can assign a collation specification to these collation-supported types:

• A STRING
• A STRING field in a STRUCT
• A STRING element in an ARRAY

In addition:

• You can assign a default collation specification to a dataset when you create or alter it. This assigns a default collation specification to all future tables that are added to the dataset if the tables don't have their own default collation specifications.
• You can assign a default collation specification to a table when you create or alter it. This assigns a collation specification to all future collation-supported columns that are added to the table if the columns don't have collation specifications. This overrides a default collation specification on a dataset.
• You can assign a collation specification to a collation-supported type in a column. A column that contains a collation-supported type in its column dataset is a collation-supported column. This overrides a default collation specification on a table.
• You can assign a collation specification to a collation-supported query operation.
• You can assign a collation specification to a collation-supported expression with the COLLATE function. This overrides any collation specifications set previously.

In summary:

You can define a default collation specification for a dataset. For example:

CREATE SCHEMA (...)
DEFAULT COLLATE 'und:ci'

You can define a default collation specification for a table. For example:

CREATE TABLE (...)
DEFAULT COLLATE 'und:ci'

You can define a collation specification for a collation-supported column. For example:

CREATE TABLE (
  case_insensitive_column STRING COLLATE 'und:ci'
)

You can specify a collation specification for a collation-supported expression with the COLLATE function. For example:

SELECT COLLATE('a', 'und:ci') AS character

DDL statements

You can assign a collation specification to the following DDL statements.

Data types

You can assign a collation specification to the following data types.

Functions, operators, and conditional expressions

You can assign a collation specification to the following functions, operators, and conditional expressions.

Functions

Operators

Conditional expressions

The preceding collation-supported operations (functions, operators, and conditional expressions) can include input with explicitly defined collation specifications for collation-supported types. In a collation-supported operation:

• All inputs with a non-empty, explicitly defined collation specification must be the same, otherwise an error is thrown.
• If an input doesn't contain an explicitly defined collation and another input contains an explicitly defined collation, the explicitly defined collation is used for both.

For example:

-- Assume there's a table with this column declaration:
CREATE TABLE table_a
(
    col_a STRING COLLATE 'und:ci',
    col_b STRING COLLATE '',
    col_c STRING,
    col_d STRING COLLATE 'und:ci'
);

-- This runs. Column 'b' has a collation specification and the
-- column 'c' doesn't.
SELECT STARTS_WITH(col_b_expression, col_c_expression)
FROM table_a;

-- This runs. Column 'a' and 'd' have the same collation specification.
SELECT STARTS_WITH(col_a_expression, col_d_expression)
FROM table_a;

-- This runs. Even though column 'a' and 'b' have different
-- collation specifications, column 'b' is considered the default collation
-- because it's assigned to an empty collation specification.
SELECT STARTS_WITH(col_a_expression, col_b_expression)
FROM table_a;

-- This works. Even though column 'a' and 'b' have different
-- collation specifications, column 'b' is updated to use the same
-- collation specification as column 'a'.
SELECT STARTS_WITH(col_a_expression, COLLATE(col_b_expression, 'und:ci'))
FROM table_a;

-- This runs. Column 'c' doesn't have a collation specification, so it uses the
-- collation specification of column 'd'.
SELECT STARTS_WITH(col_c_expression, col_d_expression)
FROM table_a;

Collation specification details

A collation specification determines how strings are sorted and compared in collation-supported operations. You can define the Unicode collation specification, und:ci, for collation-supported types.

If a collation specification isn't defined, the default collation specification is used. To learn more, see the next section.

Default collation specification

When a collation specification isn't assigned or is empty, 'binary' collation is used. Binary collation indicates that the operation should return data in Unicode code point order. You can't set binary collation explicitly.

In general, the following behavior occurs when an empty string is included in collation:

• If a string has und:ci collation, the string comparison is case-insensitive.
• If a string has empty collation, the string comparison is case-sensitive.
• If string not assigned collation, the string comparison is case-sensitive.
• A column with unassigned collation inherit the table's default collation.
• A column with empty collation doesn't inherit the table's default collation.

Unicode collation specification

collation_specification:
  'language_tag:collation_attribute'

A unicode collation specification indicates that the operation should use the Unicode Collation Algorithm to sort and compare strings. The collation specification can be a STRING literal or a query parameter.

The language tag

The language tag determines how strings are generally sorted and compared. Allowed values for language_tag are:

• und: A locale string representing the undetermined locale. und is a special language tag defined in the IANA language subtag registry and used to indicate an undetermined locale. This is also known as the root locale and can be considered the default Unicode collation. It defines a reasonable, locale agnostic collation.

The collation attribute

In addition to the language tag, the unicode collation specification must have a collation_attribute, which enables additional rules for sorting and comparing strings. Allowed values are:

• ci: Collation is case-insensitive.

Collation specification example

This is what the ci collation attribute looks like when used with the und language tag in the COLLATE function:

COLLATE('orange1', 'und:ci')

Caveats

• Differing strings can be considered equal. For instance, (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER SHARP S) is considered equal to 'SS' in some contexts. The following expressions both evaluate to TRUE:

  • COLLATE('', 'und:ci') > COLLATE('SS', 'und:ci')
  • COLLATE('1', 'und:ci') < COLLATE('SS2', 'und:ci')

  This is similar to how case insensitivity works.

• In search operations, strings with different lengths could be considered equal. To ensure consistency, collation should be used without search tailoring.

• There are a wide range of unicode code points (punctuation, symbols, etc), that are treated as if they aren't there. So strings with and without them are sorted identically. For example, the format control code point U+2060 is ignored when the following strings are sorted:

  SELECT *
  FROM UNNEST([
    COLLATE('oran\u2060ge1', 'und:ci'),
    COLLATE('\u2060orange2', 'und:ci'),
    COLLATE('orange3', 'und:ci')
  ]) AS fruit
  ORDER BY fruit
  
  /*---------+
  | fruit   |
  +---------+
  | orange1 |
  | orange2 |
  | orange3 |
  +---------*/
  

• Ordering may change. The Unicode specification of the und collation can change occasionally, which can affect sorting order.

Limitations

Limitations for supported features are captured in the previous sections, but here are a few general limitations to keep in mind:

• und:ci and empty collation are supported, but not other collation specifications.
• Operations and functions that don't support collation produce an error if they encounter collated values.

• You can't set non-empty collation on a clustering field.

  CREATE TABLE my_dataset.my_table
  (
    word STRING COLLATE 'und:ci',
    number INT64
  )
  CLUSTER BY word;
  
  -- User error:
  -- "CLUSTER BY STRING column word with
  -- collation und:ci isn't supported"
  

• You can't create a materialized view with collated sort keys in an aggregate function.

  CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW my_dataset.my_view
  AS SELECT
    -- Assume collated_table.col_ci is a string column with 'und:ci' collation.
    ARRAY_AGG(col_int64 ORDER BY col_ci) AS col_int64_arr
  FROM my_dataset.collated_table;
  
  -- User error:
  -- "Sort key with collation in aggregate function array_agg isn't
  -- supported in materialized view"
  

• If a materialized view has joined on collated columns and not all of the collated columns were produced by the materialized view, it's possible that a query with the materialized view will use data from base tables rather than the materialized view.

  CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW my_dataset.my_mv
  AS SELECT
    t1.col_ci AS t1_col_ci,
    t2.col_int64 AS t2_col_int64
  FROM my_dataset.collated_table1 AS t1
  JOIN my_dataset.collated_table2 AS t2
  ON t1.col_ci = t2.col_ci
  
  SELECT * FROM my_dataset.my_mv
  WHERE t1_col_ci = 'abc'
  
  -- Assuming collated_table1.col_ci and collated_table2.col_ci are columns
  -- with 'und:ci' collation, the query to my_mv may use data from
  -- collated_table1 and collated_table2, rather than data from my_mv.
  

• Table functions can't take collated arguments.

  CREATE TABLE FUNCTION my_dataset.my_tvf(x STRING) AS (
    SELECT x
  );
  
  SELECT * FROM my_dataset.my_tvf(COLLATE('abc', 'und:ci'));
  
  -- User error:
  -- "Collation 'und:ci' on argument of TVF call isn't allowed"
  

• A table function with collated output columns isn't supported if an explicit result schema is present.

  CREATE TABLE FUNCTION my_dataset.my_tvf(x STRING)
  RETURNS TABLE<output_str STRING>
  AS (SELECT COLLATE(x, 'und:ci') AS output_str);
  
  -- User error:
  -- "Collation 'und:ci' on output column output_str isn't allowed when an
  -- explicit result schema is present"
  

• User-defined functions (UDFs) can't take collated arguments.

  CREATE FUNCTION tmp_dataset.my_udf(x STRING) AS (x);
  
  SELECT tmp_dataset.my_udf(col_ci)
  FROM shared_dataset.table_collation_simple;
  
  -- User error:
  -- "Collation isn't allowed on argument x ('und:ci').
  -- Use COLLATE(arg, '') to remove collation at [1:8]"
  

• Collation in the return type of a user-defined function body isn't allowed.

  CREATE FUNCTION my_dataset.my_udf(x STRING) AS (COLLATE(x, 'und:ci'));
  
  -- User error:
  -- "Collation ['und:ci'] in return type of user-defined function body is
  -- not allowed"
  

• External tables don't support collation.