title: Picking the right SQL Server collation for storage
body: <p>How does the collation impact SQL Server in terms of storage and how does this affect the Unicode and non-unicode data types?</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Does the collation impact Unicode storage? or just govern sort rules within the database?</p></li>
  <li><p>When I use the non-unicode data types what restictions are tied to the collation?</p></li>
  <li><p>If restrictions apply, what happens when I try to store a character not in database collation of a non-unicode data type?</p></li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>My understanding is that the Unicode data type can always store the full set of Unicode data while the non-unicode data types storage capabilties depend on the code page (which is defined by the collation) and can only represent a number of common characters in that collation.</p>
  
  <p>Obviously each character in an Unicode data type would at least occupy 2 bytes while the non-unicode data types occupy 1 byte per character (or does this vary with collation as well?)</p>
  
  <p>Set me straight here, how does this work exactly?</p>