[mysql] How can I search (case-insensitive) in a column using LIKE wildcard?

I looked around some and didn't find what I was after so here goes.

SELECT * FROM trees WHERE trees.`title` LIKE  '%elm%'

This works fine, but not if the tree is named Elm or ELM etc...

How do I make SQL case insensitive for this wild-card search?

I'm using MySQL 5 and Apache.

Non-binary string comparisons (including LIKE) are case insensitive by default in MySql: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/en/case-sensitivity.html

This is the example of a simple LIKE query:

SELECT * FROM <table> WHERE <key> LIKE '%<searchpattern>%'

Now, case-insensitive using LOWER() func:

SELECT * FROM <table> WHERE LOWER(<key>) LIKE LOWER('%<searchpattern>%')

I've always solved this using lower:

SELECT * FROM trees WHERE LOWER( trees.title ) LIKE  '%elm%'

You don't need to ALTER any table. Just use the following queries, prior to the actual SELECT query that you want to use the wildcard:

    set names `utf8`;
    SET COLLATION_CONNECTION=utf8_general_ci;
    SET CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT=utf8;
    SET CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS=utf8;

I'm doing something like that.

Getting the values in lowercase and MySQL does the rest

    $string = $_GET['string'];
    mysqli_query($con,"SELECT *
                       FROM table_name
                       WHERE LOWER(column_name)
                       LIKE LOWER('%$string%')");

And For MySQL PDO Alternative:

        $string = $_GET['string'];
        $q = "SELECT *
              FROM table_name
              WHERE LOWER(column_name)
              LIKE LOWER(?);";
        $query = $dbConnection->prepare($q);
        $query->bindValue(1, "%$string%", PDO::PARAM_STR);
        $query->execute();

well in mysql 5.5 , like operator is insensitive...so if your vale is elm or ELM or Elm or eLM or any other , and you use like '%elm%' , it will list all the matching values.

I cant say about earlier versions of mysql.

If you go in Oracle , like work as case-sensitive , so if you type like '%elm%' , it will go only for this and ignore uppercases..

Strange , but this is how it is :)

use ILIKE

SELECT * FROM trees WHERE trees.`title` ILIKE '%elm%';

it worked for me !!

You must set up proper encoding and collation for your tables.

Table encoding must reflect the actual data encoding. What is your data encoding?

To see table encoding, you can run a query SHOW CREATE TABLE tablename

When I want to develop insensitive case searchs, I always convert every string to lower case before do comparasion

You can use the following method

 private function generateStringCondition($value = '',$field = '', $operator = '', $regex = '', $wildcardStart = '', $wildcardEnd = ''){
        if($value != ''){
            $where = " $field $regex '$wildcardStart".strtolower($value)."$wildcardEnd' ";

            $searchArray = explode(' ', $value);

            if(sizeof($searchArray) > 1){

                foreach ($searchArray as $key=>$value){
                    $where .="$operator $field $regex '$wildcardStart".strtolower($value)."$wildcardEnd'";
                }

            }

        }else{
            $where = '';
        }
        return $where;
    }

use this method like below

   $where =  $this->generateStringCondition($yourSearchString,  'LOWER(columnName)','or', 'like',  '%', '%');
  $sql = "select * from table $where";

I think this query will do a case insensitive search:

SELECT * FROM trees WHERE trees.`title` ILIKE '%elm%';

The case sensitivity is defined in the columns / tables / database collation settings. You can do the query under a specific collation in the following way:

SELECT *
FROM trees
WHERE trees.`title` LIKE '%elm%' COLLATE utf8_general_ci

for instance.

(Replace utf8_general_ci with whatever collation you find useful). The _ci stands for case insensitive.

Simply use :

"SELECT * FROM `trees` WHERE LOWER(trees.`title`) LIKE  '%elm%'";

Or Use

"SELECT * FROM `trees` WHERE LCASE(trees.`title`) LIKE  '%elm%'";

Both functions works same

SELECT name 
       FROM gallery 
       WHERE CONVERT(name USING utf8) LIKE _utf8 '%$q%' 
       GROUP BY name COLLATE utf8_general_ci LIMIT 5