SQL Server - Convert varchar to another collation (code page) to fix character encoding

Question

I\'m querying a SQL Server database that uses the SQL_Latin1_General_CP850_BIN2 collation. One of the table rows has a varchar with a value that includes the +/- character

Answer 1

We may need more information. Here is what I did to reproduce on SQL Server 2008:

CREATE DATABASE [Test] ON  PRIMARY 
    ( 
    NAME = N'Test'
    , FILENAME = N'...Test.mdf' 
    , SIZE = 3072KB 
    , FILEGROWTH = 1024KB 
    )
    LOG ON 
    ( 
    NAME = N'Test_log'
    , FILENAME = N'...Test_log.ldf' 
    , SIZE = 1024KB 
    , FILEGROWTH = 10%
    )
    COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP850_BIN2
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[MyTable]
    (
    [SomeCol] [varchar](50) NULL
    ) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
Insert MyTable( SomeCol )
Select '±' Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
GO
Select SomeCol, SomeCol Collate SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
From MyTable

Results show the original character. Declaring collation in the query should return the proper character from SQL Server's perspective however it may be the case that the presentation layer is then converting to something yet different like UTF-8.