SQL Server check case-sensitivity?
If you installed SQL Server with the default collation options, you might find that the following queries return the same results:
CREATE TABLE mytable
(
mycolumn VARCHAR(10)
)
GO
SET NOCOUNT ON
INSERT mytable VALUES('Case')
GO
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='Case'
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='caSE'
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='case'
You can alter your query by forcing collation at the column level:
SELECT myColumn FROM myTable
WHERE myColumn COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS = 'caSE'
SELECT myColumn FROM myTable
WHERE myColumn COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS = 'case'
SELECT myColumn FROM myTable
WHERE myColumn COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS = 'Case'
-- if myColumn has an index, you will likely benefit by adding
-- AND myColumn = 'case'
SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('<database name>', 'Collation')
As changing this setting can impact applications and SQL queries, I would isolate this test first. From SQL Server 2000, you can easily run an ALTER TABLE statement to change the sort order of a specific column, forcing it to be case sensitive. First, execute the following query to determine what you need to change it back to:
EXEC sp_help 'mytable'
The second recordset should contain the following information, in a default scenario:
Column_Name Collation
mycolumn SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
Whatever the 'Collation' column returns, you now know what you need to change it back to after you make the following change, which will force case sensitivity:
ALTER TABLE mytable
ALTER COLUMN mycolumn VARCHAR(10)
COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS
GO
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='Case'
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='caSE'
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE mycolumn='case'
If this screws things up, you can change it back, simply by issuing a new ALTER TABLE statement (be sure to replace my COLLATE identifier with the one you found previously):
ALTER TABLE mytable
ALTER COLUMN mycolumn VARCHAR(10)
COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS
If you are stuck with SQL Server 7.0, you can try this workaround, which might be a little more of a performance hit (you should only get a result for the FIRST match):
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE
mycolumn = 'case' AND
CAST(mycolumn AS VARBINARY(10)) = CAST('Case' AS VARBINARY(10))
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE
mycolumn = 'case' AND
CAST(mycolumn AS VARBINARY(10)) = CAST('caSE' AS VARBINARY(10))
SELECT mycolumn FROM mytable WHERE
mycolumn = 'case' AND
CAST(mycolumn AS VARBINARY(10)) = CAST('case' AS VARBINARY(10))
-- if myColumn has an index, you will likely benefit by adding
-- AND myColumn = 'case'
Collation can be set at various levels:
- Server
- Database
- Column
So you could have a Case Sensitive Column in a Case Insensitive database. I have not yet come across a situation where a business case could be made for case sensitivity of a single column of data, but I suppose there could be.
Check Server Collation
SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('COLLATION')
Check Database Collation
SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('AdventureWorks', 'Collation') SQLCollation;
Check Column Collation
select table_name, column_name, collation_name
from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
where table_name = @table_name