NLSSORT

Syntax

nlssort::=

Text description of nlssort

Purpose

NLSSORT returns the string of bytes used to sort char.

Both char and 'nlsparam' can be any of the datatypes CHAR, VARCHAR2, NCHAR, or NVARCHAR2. The string returned is of RAW datatype.

The value of 'nlsparams' can have the form

'NLS_SORT = sort'

where sort is a linguistic sort sequence or BINARY. If you omit 'nlsparams', then this function uses the default sort sequence for your session. If you specify BINARY, then this function returns char.

Examples

This function can be used to specify comparisons based on a linguistic sort sequence rather than on the binary value of a string. The following example creates a test table containing two values and shows how the values returned can be ordered by the NLSSORT function:

CREATE TABLE test (name VARCHAR2(15));
INSERT INTO test VALUES ('Gaardiner');
INSERT INTO test VALUES ('Gaberd');

SELECT * FROM test ORDER BY name;

NAME
---------------
Gaardiner
Gaberd

SELECT * FROM test
   ORDER BY NLSSORT(name, 'NLS_SORT = XDanish');

NAME
---------------
Gaberd
Gaardiner