MySQL SELECT DISTINCT should be case sensitive?

Question

How do I make MySQL\'s SELECT DISTINCT case sensitive?

create temporary table X (name varchar(50) NULL);
insert into X values (\'this\'), (\'This\');
         


        

Answer 1

You can use a hashing function (MD5) and then group on that.

SELECT Distinct(MD5(Cat)), Cat FROM (
  SELECT 'Cat'
    UNION ALL
  SELECT 'cat'
) AS BOW

SQL Output: