Since 10gR2, Oracle allows to fine-tune the behaviour of string comparisons by setting the NLS_COMP
and NLS_SORT
session parameters:
SQL> SET HEADING OFF
SQL> SELECT *
2 FROM NLS_SESSION_PARAMETERS
3 WHERE PARAMETER IN ('NLS_COMP', 'NLS_SORT');
NLS_SORT
BINARY
NLS_COMP
BINARY
SQL>
SQL> SELECT CASE WHEN 'abc'='ABC' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS GOT_MATCH
2 FROM DUAL;
0
SQL>
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET NLS_COMP=LINGUISTIC;
Session altered.
SQL> ALTER SESSION SET NLS_SORT=BINARY_CI;
Session altered.
SQL>
SQL> SELECT *
2 FROM NLS_SESSION_PARAMETERS
3 WHERE PARAMETER IN ('NLS_COMP', 'NLS_SORT');
NLS_SORT
BINARY_CI
NLS_COMP
LINGUISTIC
SQL>
SQL> SELECT CASE WHEN 'abc'='ABC' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END AS GOT_MATCH
2 FROM DUAL;
1
You can also create case insensitive indexes:
create index
nlsci1_gen_person
on
MY_PERSON
(NLSSORT
(PERSON_LAST_NAME, 'NLS_SORT=BINARY_CI')
)
;
This information was taken from Oracle case insensitive searches. The article mentions REGEXP_LIKE
but it seems to work with good old =
as well.
In versions older than 10gR2 it can't really be done and the usual approach, if you don't need accent-insensitive search, is to just UPPER()
both the column and the search expression.