Can SQL Server SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS be safely converted to Latin1_General_CI_AS?

Question

We have a legacy database with some (older) columns using \"SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS\" and more recent changes have used \"Latin1_General_CI_AS\".

This is a pain

Answer 1

Here is a more complete answer:

https://www.olcot.co.uk/revised-difference-between-collation-sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as-and-latin1_general_ci_as/

The key difference between these collations is in how they apply character expansion rules. Certain Latin characters may be expanded into multiple characters. The SQL_xxxx collations may ignore these character expansions when working with non-unicode text, but apply them for unicode text. As a result: joins, sorts, and comparisons may return different results when using one collation versus the other.

Example:

Under Latin1_General_CI_AS these two statements return the same set of records, as ß is expanded to ss.

SELECT * FROM MyTable3 WHERE Comments = 'strasse'
SELECT * FROM MyTable3 WHERE Comments = 'straße'

When using SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS the above statements return different records, since the ß is treated as a different character than ss.