Diacritic insensitive mysql search?

Question

Hello,

How do I make a diacritic insensitive,

ex this persian string with diacritics

هواى بَر آفتابِ بارِز

is not the same as with removed diacritics in mySql

هواى بر آفتاب بارز

Is there a way of telling mysql to ignore the diacritics or do I have to remove all the diacritics in my fields manually?

Answer 1

It's a bit like case-insensitivity problem.

SELECT * FROM blah WHERE UPPER(foo) = "THOMAS"

Just convert both strings to diacritic-free before comparing.

Answer 2

Did you already read all of MySQL Character Set Support to check if the answer to your question isn't already there? Especially collations are to be understood.

I wild guess is that using utf8_general_ci could do the right thing for you