Very Computer

My boss just came to me with a question, and we have come up with
what we think is the best answer, but we'd like to hear what others
think as well.

The problem is this:  One of our projects uses a (large) SQL Server
database which does exclusively case-insensitive searches.  Suddenly,
someone decides that users would like to be able to do case-sensitive
searches, even if for technical reasons we prefer (and may even need)
to use case-insensitive searches for the internals.

In other words, how does one do a case-sensitive search on a
Microsoft SQL Server 6.0 database set up for case-insensitve searches?

We came up with a kludge:  Use an extended stored procedure to call
a C program that takes the operands of the comparison as arguments
and returns a 0 or +-1 based on a case-sensitive comparison.

Can anyone tell us, first, if this will work, and second, is there a
better way without turning on case-sensistivity in SQL Server?

If you have a reply, please either post here with the work "case" in

Thanks,
- Brad

Brad,
        That sounds like it would work.  When we faced this question, we also came
up with kludgy work around:  In a stored procedure, search for the column
as normal and put the results into a temp table.  Then, convert the search
string into a varbinary string and put into a variable, then search the
temp table search column also converted in the same way to a varbinary
string.  The results you get from this second search are the ones that
match case-sensitive.

        If this didn't parse out, e-mail me and I'll give you some more detail...

                                Vince

Brad,

Using an xp is ok, but how will you handle multiple rows - using a cursor?  If
you HAVE to have this situation, then I'd be considering two separate SQL
Servers kept-in-synch.  One as case-sensitive, the other not.

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