<!-- doc/src/sgml/ref/create_collation.sgml -->

<refentry id="SQL-CREATECOLLATION">
 <indexterm zone="sql-createcollation">
  <primary>CREATE COLLATION</primary>
 </indexterm>

 <refmeta>
  <refentrytitle>CREATE COLLATION</refentrytitle>
  <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
  <refmiscinfo>SQL - Language Statements</refmiscinfo>
 </refmeta>

 <refnamediv>
  <refname>CREATE COLLATION</refname>
  <refpurpose>define a new collation</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <refsynopsisdiv>
<synopsis>
CREATE COLLATION [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <replaceable>name</replaceable> (
    [ LOCALE = <replaceable>locale</replaceable>, ]
    [ LC_COLLATE = <replaceable>lc_collate</replaceable>, ]
    [ LC_CTYPE = <replaceable>lc_ctype</replaceable> ]
)
CREATE COLLATION [ IF NOT EXISTS ] <replaceable>name</replaceable> FROM <replaceable>existing_collation</replaceable>
</synopsis>
 </refsynopsisdiv>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createcollation-description">
  <title>Description</title>

  <para>
   <command>CREATE COLLATION</command> defines a new collation using
   the specified operating system locale settings,
   or by copying an existing collation.
 </para>

  <para>
   To be able to create a collation, you must
   have <literal>CREATE</literal> privilege on the destination schema.
  </para>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1>
  <title>Parameters</title>

   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><literal>IF NOT EXISTS</literal></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       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.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>name</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       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.)
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>locale</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       This is a shortcut for setting <symbol>LC_COLLATE</symbol>
       and <symbol>LC_CTYPE</symbol> at once.  If you specify this,
       you cannot specify either of those parameters.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>lc_collate</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       Use the specified operating system locale for
       the <symbol>LC_COLLATE</symbol> locale category.  The locale
       must be applicable to the current database encoding.
       (See <xref linkend="sql-createdatabase"> for the precise
       rules.)
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>lc_ctype</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       Use the specified operating system locale for
       the <symbol>LC_CTYPE</symbol> locale category.  The locale
       must be applicable to the current database encoding.
       (See <xref linkend="sql-createdatabase"> for the precise
       rules.)
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
     <term><replaceable>existing_collation</replaceable></term>

     <listitem>
      <para>
       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.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1 id="sql-createcollation-notes">
  <title>Notes</title>

  <para>
   Use <command>DROP COLLATION</command> to remove user-defined collations.
  </para>

  <para>
   See <xref linkend="collation"> for more information about collation
   support in PostgreSQL.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 id="sql-createcollation-examples">
  <title>Examples</title>

  <para>
   To create a collation from the operating system locale
   <literal>fr_FR.utf8</literal>
   (assuming the current database encoding is <literal>UTF8</literal>):
<programlisting>
CREATE COLLATION french (LOCALE = 'fr_FR.utf8');
</programlisting>
  </para>

  <para>
   To create a collation from an existing collation:
<programlisting>
CREATE COLLATION german FROM "de_DE";
</programlisting>
   This can be convenient to be able to use operating-system-independent
   collation names in applications.
  </para>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1 id="sql-createcollation-compat">
  <title>Compatibility</title>

  <para>
   There is a <command>CREATE COLLATION</command> statement in the SQL
   standard, but it is limited to copying an existing collation.  The
   syntax to create a new collation is
   a <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> extension.
  </para>
 </refsect1>


 <refsect1 id="sql-createcollation-seealso">
  <title>See Also</title>

  <simplelist type="inline">
   <member><xref linkend="sql-altercollation"></member>
   <member><xref linkend="sql-dropcollation"></member>
  </simplelist>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>
