Is the LIKE operator case-sensitive with MSSQL Server?
It is not the operator that is case sensitive, it is the column itself.
When a SQL Server installation is performed a default collation is chosen to the instance. Unless explicitly mentioned otherwise (check the collate clause bellow) when a new database is created it inherits the collation from the instance and when a new column is created it inherits the collation from the database it belongs.
A collation like sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as
dictates how the content of the column should be treated. CI stands for case insensitive and AS stands for accent sensitive.
A complete list of collations is available at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms144250(v=sql.105).aspx
(a) To check a instance collation
select serverproperty('collation')
(b) To check a database collation
select databasepropertyex('databasename', 'collation') sqlcollation
(c) To create a database using a different collation
create database exampledatabase
collate sql_latin1_general_cp1_cs_as
(d) To create a column using a different collation
create table exampletable (
examplecolumn varchar(10) collate sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as null
)
(e) To modify a column collation
alter table exampletable
alter column examplecolumn varchar(10) collate sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as null
It is possible to change a instance and database collations but it does not affect previously created objects.
It is also possible to change a column collation on the fly for string comparison, but this is highly unrecommended in a production environment because it is extremely costly.
select
column1 collate sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as as column1
from table1
All this talk about collation seem a bit over-complicated. Why not just use something like:
IF UPPER(@@VERSION) NOT LIKE '%AZURE%'
Then your check is case insensitive whatever the collation
You have an option to define collation order at the time of defining your table. If you define a case-sensitive order, your LIKE
operator will behave in a case-sensitive way; if you define a case-insensitive collation order, the LIKE
operator will ignore character case as well:
CREATE TABLE Test (
CI_Str VARCHAR(15) COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS -- Case-insensitive
, CS_Str VARCHAR(15) COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS -- Case-sensitive
);
Here is a quick demo on sqlfiddle showing the results of collation order on searches with LIKE
.