In MySQL, databases correspond to directories within the data directory. Each table within a database corresponds to at least one file within the database directory (and possibly more, depending on the storage engine). Consequently, the case sensitivity of the underlying operating system determines the case sensitivity of database and table names. This means database and table names are not case sensitive in Windows, and case sensitive in most varieties of Unix. One notable exception is Mac OS X, which is Unix-based but uses a default filesystem type (HFS+) that is not case sensitive. However, Mac OS X also supports UFS volumes, which are case sensitive just as on any Unix. See Section 1.9.4, “MySQL Extensions to Standard SQL”. The lower_case_table_names system variable also affects how the server handles identifier case sensitivity, as described later in this section.

MySQL Enterprise.  lower_case_table_names is just one of the system variables monitored by the MySQL Network Monitoring and Advisory Service. For information about subscribing to this service see, http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

Note: Although database and table names are not case sensitive on some platforms, you should not refer to a given database or table using different cases within the same statement. The following statement would not work because it refers to a table both as my_table and as MY_TABLE:

mysql> SELECT * FROM my_table WHERE MY_TABLE.col=1;

Column, index, stored routine, and trigger names are not case sensitive on any platform, nor are column aliases.

Table aliases are case sensitive before MySQL 4.1.1. The following query would not work because it refers to the alias both as a and as A:

mysql> SELECT col_name FROM tbl_name AS a
    -> WHERE a.col_name = 1 OR A.col_name = 2;

If you have trouble remembering the allowable lettercase for database and table names, it is best to adopt a consistent convention, such as always creating and referring to databases and tables using lowercase names. This convention is recommended for maximum portability and ease of use.

How table and database names are stored on disk and used in MySQL is affected by the lower_case_table_names system variable, which you can set when starting mysqld. lower_case_table_names can take the values shown in the following table. On Unix, the default value of lower_case_table_names is 0. On Windows, the default value is 1. On Mac OS X, the default is 1 before MySQL 4.0.18 and 2 as of 4.0.18.

If you are using MySQL on only one platform, you don't normally have to change the lower_case_table_names variable. However, you may encounter difficulties if you want to transfer tables between platforms that differ in filesystem case sensitivity. For example, on Unix, you can have two different tables named my_table and MY_TABLE, but on Windows those names are considered identical. To avoid data transfer problems stemming from lettercase of database or table names, you have two options:

Note that if you plan to set the lower_case_table_names system variable to 1 on Unix, you must first convert your old database and table names to lowercase before restarting mysqld with the new variable setting.