How to create External table with different collation

Question

Please confirm can we create a External table with Different collation on Azure Synapse Database. Can we have different collation on object level ?

Azure Synapse Database collation : Default (SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS)
Expected Table creation with Collation : Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8

Answer 1

Hello @Mallikarjuna Avula ,

Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

Sorry, you can't create external tables with a different collation on the table level, collation is only applicable on the column level in the external tables.

Please see the below example for your reference.

USE [mydbname];
GO
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE populationExternalTable
(
[country_code] VARCHAR (5) COLLATE Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8,
[country_name] VARCHAR (100) COLLATE Latin1_General_100_CI_AI_SC_UTF8,
[year] smallint,
[population] bigint
)
WITH (
LOCATION = 'csv/population/population.csv',
DATA_SOURCE = sqlondemanddemo,
FILE_FORMAT = QuotedCSVWithHeaderFormat
);

Also please see this documentation for more details on the external table syntax

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