__NOTOC__ The Unicode collation algorithm (UCA) is an algorithm defined in Unicode Technical Report #10, which is a customizable method to produce binary keys from strings representing text in any

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

and

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

that can be represented with

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

. These keys can then be efficiently compared byte by byte in order to collate or sort them according to the rules of the language, with options for ignoring case, accents, etc. Unicode Technical Report #10 also specifies the ''Default Unicode Collation Element Table'' (DUCET). This data file specifies a default collation ordering. The DUCET is customizable for different languages, and some such customizations can be found in the Unicode

Common Locale Data Repository The Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) is a project of the Unicode Consortium to provide locale data in XML format for use in computer applications. CLDR contains locale-specific information that an operating system will typically provide to ...

(CLDR). An open source implementation of UCA is included with the

International Components for Unicode International Components for Unicode (ICU) is an open-source project of mature C/ C++ and Java libraries for Unicode support, software internationalization, and software globalization. ICU is widely portable to many operating systems and envir ...

, ICU. ICU supports tailoring, and the collation tailorings from CLDR are included in ICU.

References

External links

Unicode Collation Algorithm
Unicode Technical Standard #10
Mimer SQL Unicode Collation Charts

Tools

ICU Locale Explorer
An online demonstration of the Unicode Collation Algorithm using

An ICU collation demo

A sort program that provides an unusual level of flexibility in defining collations and extracting keys. String collation algorithms Collation Collation {{standard-stub

See also

References

External links

Tools