Re: Case insensitive queries

From: Dave Hau <nospam_davehau_nospam_123_at_nospam_netscape.net>
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2003 22:48:54 GMT
Message-ID: <qPawb.44942$tO3.1470@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com>

"Hans Forbrich" <forbrich_at_yahoo.net> wrote in message news:3FC13015.9B0BA439_at_yahoo.net...
> JB wrote:
> >
> > How can one set the Oracle database in case insensitive query mode?
> > How can this be done globally(always) as well as per query and per
> > session? All three please!
> >
> > Thanks!
>
> AFAIK, data is case sensitive. AFAIK, you can not force Oracle to set
> case insensiivity using some instance/database/session poarameter.
>
> Per query, you can force case-matching using the 'lower()' and
> 'uppper()' functions against both sides of the condition.
>
> Opinion: I'm not sure that I'd want to be able to have a global- or
> session- based case insensitivity. Seems to me there'd be too many
> exceptions where I'd want the other way. (Seems to me the requirement
> for case-insensitivity would be a generated by programmer laziness or
> insufficient user training - not uncommon these days.)

This can be helpful in client apps where a user can specify in a "User Preferences" section whether they want case sensitivity in their search or not. Rather than coding if-then statements to concatenate upper() into every string comparison predicate, if Oracle had this session parameter, the app could just execute an ALTER SESSION statement at the start of the session, based on the value of the case sensitivity setting in the User Preferences section.

Regards,
Dave Received on Sun Nov 23 2003 - 16:48:54 CST