### 26.3.6 The INFORMATION\_SCHEMA COLLATIONS Table

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 The [`COLLATIONS`](information-schema-collations-table.html) table provides information about collations for each character set.

 The [`COLLATIONS`](information-schema-collations-table.html) table has these columns:

* `COLLATION_NAME`

   The collation name.

* `CHARACTER_SET_NAME`

   The name of the character set with which the collation is associated.

* `ID`

   The collation ID.

* `IS_DEFAULT`

   Whether the collation is the default for its character set.

* `IS_COMPILED`

   Whether the character set is compiled into the server.

* `SORTLEN`

   This is related to the amount of memory required to sort strings expressed in the character set.

* `PAD_ATTRIBUTE`

   The collation pad attribute, either `NO PAD` or `PAD SPACE`. This attribute affects whether trailing spaces are significant in string comparisons; see [Trailing Space Handling in Comparisons](charset-binary-collations.html#charset-binary-collations-trailing-space-comparisons).

#### Notes

 Collation information is also available from the [`SHOW COLLATION`](show-collation.html) statement. See [Section 13.7.7.4, “SHOW COLLATION Statement”](show-collation.html). The following statements are equivalent:

```
SELECT COLLATION_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS
  [WHERE COLLATION_NAME LIKE 'wild']

SHOW COLLATION
  [LIKE 'wild']
```

