Binary vs. Case-Insensitive Collations: Which is Right for Your MySQL Database?

Comparing Binary and Case-Insensitive Collations: Practical Implications

While exploring the differences between binary and case-insensitive collations in MySQL, the following practical implications emerge:

Sorting Order:

• Binary collations use a byte-by-byte comparison, which may result in umlauts being placed at the end of the alphabet.
• Case-insensitive collations consider the ASCII code points for letters, ignoring letter casing.

Case Sensitivity:

• Binary collations conduct case-sensitive searches, treating 'A' and 'a' as distinct characters.
• Case-insensitive collations disregard letter casing, considering 'A' and 'a' as equivalent.

Character Equality:

• Binary collations do not allow equality between characters with different character codes. For example, 'A' and 'Ä' are not considered equal.
• Case-insensitive collations extend equality to characters with different character codes but the same ASCII code point.

Additional Considerations:

• Binary collations provide faster string comparisons but may produce unnatural sort orders.
• Indexes with binary collations may not always produce expected sorting results but can enhance performance for exact matches.
• For natural sorting and handling of accented characters, case-insensitive collations are preferred.

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