How can I tell if SQL Server is case sensitive?
Emma Martin
Updated on April 09, 2026
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People also ask, is SQL Server like case sensitive?
8 Answers. It is not the operator that is case sensitive, it is the column itself. When a SQL Server installation is performed a default collation is chosen to the instance. A collation like sql_latin1_general_cp1_ci_as dictates how the content of the column should be treated.
Beside above, are SQL variables case sensitive? The default collation of a SQL Server installation, SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS is not case sensitive. It sounds like you want to modify the collation of your server to one that is case-insensitive. The _CI means "case insensitive", and case-sensitive is _CS .
Thereof, how do I do a case sensitive search in SQL?
Case insensitive SQL SELECT: Use upper or lower functions select * from users where lower(first_name) = 'fred'; As you can see, the pattern is to make the field you're searching into uppercase or lowercase, and then make your search string also be uppercase or lowercase to match the SQL function you've used.
What is SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS?
The SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS collation is a SQL collation and the rules around sorting data for unicode and non-unicode data are different. A Windows collation as per this example can still use an index if comparing unicode and non-unicode data albeit with a slight performance hit.
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