How can I make SQL case sensitive string comparison on MySQL?

Question

I have a function that returns five characters with mixed case. If I do a query on this string it will return the value regardless of case.

How can I make MySQL stri

Answer 1

To make use of an index before using the BINARY, you could do something like this if you have large tables.

SELECT
   *
FROM
   (SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE `column` = 'value') as firstresult
WHERE
   BINARY `column` = 'value'

The subquery would result in a really small case-insensitive subset of which you then select the only case-sensitive match.