drop table if exists t1;
SET NAMES cp1251;
create table t1 (a varchar(10) not null);
insert into t1 values ("a"),("ab"),("abc");
select * from t1;
a
a
ab
abc
select a, left(a,1) as b from t1;
a	b
a	a
ab	a
abc	a
select a, left(a,1) as b from t1 group by a;
a	b
a	a
ab	a
abc	a
SELECT DISTINCT RIGHT(a,1) from t1;
RIGHT(a,1)
a
b
c
drop table t1;
create table t1 (a char(15) binary, b binary(15));
insert into t1 values ('aaa','bbb'),('AAA','BBB');
select upper(a),upper(b) from t1;
upper(a)	upper(b)
AAA	bbb
AAA	BBB
select lower(a),lower(b) from t1;
lower(a)	lower(b)
aaa	bbb
aaa	BBB
select * from t1 where upper(a)='AAA';
a	b
aaa	bbb
AAA	BBB
select * from t1 where lower(a)='aaa';
a	b
aaa	bbb
AAA	BBB
select * from t1 where upper(b)='BBB';
a	b
AAA	BBB
select * from t1 where lower(b)='bbb';
a	b
aaa	bbb
select charset(a), charset(b), charset(binary 'ccc') from t1 limit 1;
charset(a)	charset(b)	charset(binary 'ccc')
cp1251	binary	binary
select collation(a), collation(b), collation(binary 'ccc') from t1 limit 1;
collation(a)	collation(b)	collation(binary 'ccc')
cp1251_bin	binary	binary
drop table t1;