Syntax

LOWER(str)

Description

Returns the string str with all characters changed to lowercase according to the current character set mapping. The default is latin1 (cp1252 West European).

Examples

 SELECT LOWER('QUADRATICALLY');
+------------------------+
| LOWER('QUADRATICALLY') |
+------------------------+
| quadratically          |
+------------------------+

LOWER() (and UPPER()) are ineffective when applied to binary strings (BINARY, VARBINARY, BLOB). To perform lettercase conversion, CONVERT the string to a non-binary string:

SET @str = BINARY 'North Carolina';

SELECT LOWER(@str), LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1));
+----------------+-----------------------------------+
| LOWER(@str)    | LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1)) |
+----------------+-----------------------------------+
| North Carolina | north carolina                    |
+----------------+-----------------------------------+