title: Cast collation of nvarchar variables in t-sql
body: <p>I need to change the collation of an nvarchar variable. <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms184391.aspx" rel="noreferrer">By documentation</a>:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>(...) 
    3. The COLLATE clause can be specified
    at several levels. These include the
    following:</p>
    
    <p>Casting the collation of an
    expression.  You can use the COLLATE
    clause to apply a character expression
    to a certain collation. Character
    literals and variables are assigned
    the default collation of the current
    database. Column references are
    assigned the definition collation of
    the column. For the collation of an
    expression, see <a href="http://doc.ddart.net/mssql/sql2000/html/tsqlref/ts_da-db_7ory.htm" rel="noreferrer">Collation Precedence</a>
    (Transact-SQL).</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>However I can't figure out the correct syntax for the usage of CAST(), CONVERT() or variable declaration with DECLARE for this purpose.</p>