In SQL Server, when writing queries, it is important to understand how data case sensitivity affects the results. By default, SQL Server is not case sensitive, meaning that a query will return all results regardless of the case. For example, if we write a query to search for products starting with the letter "b" using the condition "WHERE product\_name LIKE 'b%'", it will return all product names starting with both uppercase and lowercase "B".
Case Sensitivity in SQL Server
To perform a case-sensitive search in SQL Server, we need to use a case-sensitive collation. Collation determines how string comparison is performed, including case sensitivity. One of the case-sensitive collations available in SQL Server is "Latin1\_General\_CS\_AS".
Using Case Sensitive Collation
By using the "Latin1\_General\_CS\_AS" collation, we can ensure that our query results are case sensitive. Let's consider an example where we want to search for product names starting with the letter "B" in the correct case. We can modify our query to:
* SELECT \* FROM products
* WHERE product\_name COLLATE Latin1\_General\_CS\_AS LIKE 'B%'
With this modification, the query will only return product names starting with the uppercase "B", giving us the desired output.
Conclusion
Understanding case sensitivity in SQL Server is crucial when writing queries that require precise search results. By default, SQL Server is not case sensitive, but by using a case-sensitive collation like "Latin1\_General\_CS\_AS", we can achieve a case-sensitive search. This allows us to retrieve data that matches the exact case we specify in our query conditions.