Sort orders
90 Adaptive Server Enterprise
When a localized client application connects to Adaptive Server, the server
checks to see if it supports the client’s language and character set.
• If Adaptive Server supports the language, it automatically performs all
character set conversions and displays its messages in the client’s language
and character set.
• If Adaptive Server does not support the language, it uses the user’s default
language or Adaptive Server’s default language.
• If Adaptive Server does not support the character set, it issues a warning
to the client, turns conversion off, and sets the language to U.S. English.
Sort orders
Each character set comes with one or more sort orders (collating sequences),
which are located in the sort-order definition files (.srt files). These files
accompany the character set definition files and can be found in the same
directory.
You can select a sort order for your data according to the needs at your site.
However, the server can support only one sort order at a time, so select a sort
order that will work for all of your clients.
Warning! Make all changes to the default character set and sort order for a new
Adaptive Server before creating any user databases or making any changes to
the Sybase-supplied databases. Changing the character set and sort order after
data or data structures have been added to Adaptive Server may cause incorrect
behavior. To change the character set or sort order after you have added data,
see the System Administration Guide.

Available sort orders

The sort order determines the collating sequence Adaptive Server uses to order,
compare, and index character data. Each character set comes with one or more
sort orders.