This page provides a means to convert a string of Unicode characters into a binary collation key using the Java language
version ("icu4j") of the IBM International
Components for Unicode (ICU) library. A collation key is the basis for sorting and comparing strings in a language-sensitive
Unicode environment. A collation key is built using a "locale" (a designation for a particular laguage or a variant) and a
comparison level. The levels supported here (Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary and Identical) correspond to levels "L1"
through "Ln" as described in Unicode Technical Standard #10 -
Unicode Collation Algorithm. When comparing collation keys for two different strings, both keys must have been created
using the same locale and comparison level in order to be meaningful. The two keys are compared from left to right, byte for
byte until one of the bytes is not equal to the other. Whichever byte is numerically less than the other causes the source
string for that collation key to sort before the other string.
Input a string into the "Source" field, optionally select a locale and click on the button corresponding to the
comparison level you want. The result will be displayed in hex. The source string may contain numeric
character entities of the form &#DECIMAL; or &#xHEX; where DECIMAL or HEX is a decimal or
hexadecimal number, respectively.