Get-DbaAvailableCollation

Bryan Hamby (@galador)

Windows, Linux, macOS

Synopsis

Retrieves all available collations from SQL Server instances with detailed locale and code page information

Returns the complete list of collations supported by each SQL Server instance, along with their associated code page names, locale descriptions, and detailed properties.
This information is essential when creating new databases, changing database collations, or planning migrations where collation compatibility matters.
The function enhances the raw collation data with human-readable code page and locale descriptions to help DBAs make informed collation choices.
Only connect permission is required to retrieve this information.

Syntax

Get-DbaAvailableCollation
    [-SqlInstance] <DbaInstanceParameter[]>
    [[-SqlCredential] <PSCredential>]
    [-EnableException]
    [<CommonParameters>]

Examples

Example: 1

PS C:\> Get-DbaAvailableCollation -SqlInstance sql2016

Gets all the collations from server sql2016 using NT authentication

Required Parameters

-SqlInstance

The target SQL Server instance or instances. Only connect permission is required.

Property	Value
Alias
Required	True
Pipeline	true (ByValue)
Default Value

Optional Parameters

-SqlCredential

Login to the target instance using alternative credentials. Accepts PowerShell credentials (Get-Credential).
Windows Authentication, SQL Server Authentication, Active Directory - Password, and Active Directory - Integrated are all supported.
For MFA support, please use Connect-DbaInstance.

Property	Value
Alias
Required	False
Pipeline	false
Default Value

-EnableException

By default, when something goes wrong we try to catch it, interpret it and give you a friendly warning message.
This avoids overwhelming you with “sea of red” exceptions, but is inconvenient because it basically disables advanced scripting.
Using this switch turns this “nice by default” feature off and enables you to catch exceptions with your own try/catch.

Property	Value
Alias
Required	False
Pipeline	false
Default Value	False

Outputs

Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.Collation

Returns one collation object per collation supported by each SQL Server instance, enhanced with human-readable descriptions.

Default display properties (via Select-DefaultView):

ComputerName: The computer name of the SQL Server instance
InstanceName: The SQL Server service name
SqlInstance: The full SQL Server instance name (computer\instance)
Name: The collation name (e.g., SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS)
CodePage: The numeric code page identifier (e.g., 1252 for Latin1)
CodePageName: Human-readable code page encoding name (e.g., iso-8859-1)
LocaleID: The numeric locale identifier (LCID) representing the language/culture
LocaleName: Human-readable locale/language name (e.g., English_United States, Japanese_Unicode)
Description: SQL Server collation description with sorting and case sensitivity information

Additional properties available from SMO Collation object (use Select-Object * to access):

BinaryOrder: Boolean indicating if the collation uses binary sort order
BuiltInComparisonStyle: The comparison style constant used by SQL Server
IsCodePageCompatible: Boolean indicating code page compatibility
IsCaseSensitive: Boolean indicating if the collation is case-sensitive
IsAccentSensitive: Boolean indicating if the collation is accent-sensitive
IsKanaTypeSensitive: Boolean indicating if the collation distinguishes between Hiragana and Katakana
IsWidthSensitive: Boolean indicating if the collation distinguishes between full-width and half-width characters All properties from the base SMO Collation object are accessible even though only default properties are displayed without using Select-Object *.