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The '''Unicode collation algorithm''' ('''UCA''') is an algorithm defined in Unicode Technical Report #10, which is a customizable method to produce binary keys from [[String (computer science)|strings]] representing text in any [[Social:Writing system|writing system]] and [[Social:Language|language]] that can be represented with [[Unicode]]. These keys can then be efficiently byte-by-byte compared in order to collate or sort them according to the rules of the language, with options for ignoring case, accents, etc.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Whistler |first=Ken |last2=Scherer |first2=Markus |last3=Davis |first3=Mark |date=2022-08-26 |title=UTS #10: Unicode Collation Algorithm |url=https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr10/ |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=[[Unicode]]}}</ref>
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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Hosken |first=Martin |url=https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/render_download.php?format=file&media_id=..%2Fsites%2Fs%2Fmedia%2Fdatabase%2Fssproto%2Fentries%2Fpn%2Frn%2Fpnrnlhkrq9_sort_tutorial.pdf&filename=sort_tutorial.pdf |title=Unicode Sort Tailoring: Tutorial |date=2021-09-23 |publisher=[[Organization:SIL International|SIL Writing Systems Technology]] |edition=1.3 |pages=2–3 |format=PDF |access-date=2023-08-16}}</ref> Some such customizations can be found in the Unicode [[Common Locale Data Repository]] (CLDR).<ref>{{Cite web |title=CLDR Releases/Downloads |url=https://cldr.unicode.org/index/downloads |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=[[Common Locale Data Repository|Unicode CLDR]] |language=}}</ref>

An open source implementation of UCA is included with the [[Software:International Components for Unicode|International Components for Unicode]], ICU.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ICU - International Components for Unicode |url=https://icu.unicode.org/home |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=[[Unicode]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collations |url=https://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.help.sqlanywhere.12.0.1/dbadmin/natlang-s-7003956.html |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=SyBooks Online}}</ref> ICU supports tailoring, and the collation tailorings from CLDR are included in ICU.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Customization |url=https://unicode-org.github.io/icu/userguide/collation/customization/ |access-date=2023-08-16 |website=ICU Documentation |language=}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

==See also==
* Collation
* ISO/IEC 14651
* European ordering rules (EOR)
* [[Common Locale Data Repository]] (CLDR)

== References ==
<references />

==External links==
* [https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr10/ Unicode Collation Algorithm]: Unicode Technical Standard #10
* [http://developer.mimer.com/sql-unicode-collation-charts/ Mimer SQL Unicode Collation Charts]

===Tools===
* [https://icu4c-demos.unicode.org/icu-bin/locexp?_=en_US&x=col ICU Locale Explorer] An online demonstration of the Unicode Collation Algorithm using [[Software:International Components for Unicode|International Components for Unicode]] , as of 2023-08-16 it's not working.
*[https://icu4c-demos.unicode.org/icu-bin/collation.html An ICU collation demo], as of 2023-08-16 it's not working.
* [http://billposer.org/Software/msort.html msort] A sort program that provides an unusual level of flexibility in defining collations and extracting keys.

{{Unicode navigation}}

[[Category:Unicode algorithms|Collation]]



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