SQL Server Administration Blog | zarez.net

To list all column collations for character-based columns (char, varchar, text, nchar, nvarchar, and ntext data) for all user-defined tables in a database (in this example we will use AdventureWorks database) that have different collation than the Database collation, run this query:

USE AdventureWorks
GO
DECLARE @DB_Name VARCHAR(50)
SET @DB_Name=(SELECT DB_NAME())
DECLARE @DB_Collation VARCHAR(50)
SET @DB_Collation=CAST(DATABASEPROPERTYEX(@DB_Name, 'Collation') as varchar(50))
SELECT s.name as 'Schema_Name', t.name as Table_Name,
c.name AS Column_Name,
c.collation_name AS Collation,
@DB_Collation AS Database_Collation
FROM sys.schemas s
INNER JOIN sys.tables t
ON t.schema_id = s.schema_id
INNER JOIN sys.columns c
ON c.object_id = t.object_id
WHERE collation_name is not null
AND collation_name <> @DB_Collation
ORDER BY Column_Name

To see how to List all Column Collations for all Tables in a SQL Server Database, read related blog post:
List all Column Collations for all Tables in a SQL Server Database

To list all collations supported by the version of SQL Server that you are running, and the Non-Unicode code page of the collation, run the following query:

select name, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name, 'CodePage') as Code_Page, description
from sys.fn_HelpCollations()

Unicode-only collations do not have associated code pages, they are specified for Unicode-only data (nchar, nvarchar, and nvarchar(max)). They cannot be set at the database or server level.
If you try to create a database with a Unicode-only collation (for example ‘Lao_100_CI_AI’), you will get the following error:

Collation ‘Lao_100_CI_AI’ is supported on Unicode data types only and cannot be set at the database or server level. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 453).

You can see the Code Page and Description for a specific collation:

select name, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name, 'CodePage') as Code_Page, description
from sys.fn_HelpCollations()
where name = 'Latin1_General_CS_AS'

For example, you can list all collation that have a name that starts with ‘SQL_L’ and have a word ‘insensitive’ in the description:

select name, COLLATIONPROPERTY(name, 'CodePage') as Code_Page, description
from sys.fn_HelpCollations()
where Name like 'SQL_L%' and Description like '%insensitive%';

To find Collation of a SQL Server Instance using T-SQL run this query:

SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('COLLATION')

To find Collation of a SQL Server Instance using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS):

Right Click on a SQL Server Instance in Object Explorer and choose ‘Properties’:

On the General tab you can see SQL Server Instance collation: