Linguistic Sort Rules Support Linguistic Conventions

Different languages have different sorting rules. Text is conventionally sorted inside a database according to the binary codes used to encode the characters. Typically, this does not produce a sort order that is linguistically meaningful. A linguistic sort handles the complex sorting requirements of different languages and cultures.

It enables text in character data types, such as CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, and NVARCHAR2, to be sorted according to specific linguistic conventions.

A linguistic sort operates by replacing characters with numeric values that reflect each character's proper linguistic order. TimesTen offers two kinds of linguistic sorts: monolingual and multilingual.

This section includes the following topics:

• Monolingual Linguistic Sorts

• Multilingual Linguistic Sorts

• Case-Insensitive and Accent-Insensitive Linguistic Sorts

• Performing a Linguistic Sort

• Using Linguistic Indexes