For example, sorting Swedish names in either Swedish or English (accent and case sensitive):
SQL>create table t (names nvarchar(30)); SQL>insert into t values('Arlanda'); SQL>insert into t values('Örebro'); SQL>insert into t values('Oskarshamn'); SQL>insert into t values('Ängelholm'); SQL>insert into t values('Malmö'); SQL>insert into t values('Stockholm'); SQL>insert into t values('Åmål'); SQL>-- You can speed up the sort with indexes! SQL>create index s on t(names collate swedish_3); SQL>create index e on t(names collate english_3); SQL>SELECT names FROM t ORDER BY names COLLATE swedish_3; NAMES ===== Arlanda Malmö Oskarshamn Stockholm Åmål Ängelholm Örebro SQL>SELECT names FROM t ORDER BY names COLLATE english_3; NAMES ===== Åmål Ängelholm Arlanda Malmö Örebro Oskarshamn Stockholm