How can I make SQL case sensitive string comparison on MySQL?

Question

I have a function that returns five characters with mixed case. If I do a query on this string it will return the value regardless of case.

How can I make MySQL stri

Answer 1

The answer posted by Craig White has a big performance penalty

SELECT *  FROM `table` WHERE BINARY `column` = 'value'

because it doesn't use indexes. So, either you need to change the table collation like mention here https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/case-sensitivity.html.

OR

Easiest fix, you should use a BINARY of value.

SELECT *  FROM `table` WHERE `column` = BINARY 'value'

E.g.

mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM temp1 WHERE BINARY col1 = "ABC" AND col2 = "DEF" ;
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
| id | select_type | table  | type | possible_keys | key  | key_len | ref  | rows   | Extra       |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+
|  1 | SIMPLE      | temp1  | ALL  | NULL          | NULL | NULL    | NULL | 190543 | Using where |
+----+-------------+--------+------+---------------+------+---------+------+--------+-------------+

VS

mysql> EXPLAIN SELECT * FROM temp1 WHERE col1 = BINARY "ABC" AND col2 = "DEF" ;
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------+------+------+------------------------------------+
| id | select_type | table | type  | possible_keys | key           | key_len | ref  | rows | Extra                              |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------+------+------+------------------------------------+
|  1 | SIMPLE      | temp1 | range | col1_2e9e898e | col1_2e9e898e | 93      | NULL |    2 | Using index condition; Using where |
+----+-------------+-------+-------+---------------+---------------+---------+------+------+------------------------------------+
enter code here

1 row in set (0.00 sec)