Can I make SELECT DISTINCT case insensitive?

[Daniel Carrera]

Hello. I have something of the form:

INSERT INTO t1 (foo) SELECT DISTINCT foo FROM t2

Field foo is VARCHAR and in t1 it is a primary key. Here is the problem: When inserting into t1, MySQL treats '7a' and '7A' as the same value, so it is case insensitive. But the SELECT DISTINCT statement returns 7a and 7A as distinct values, so it is case sensitive.

Is there a way to make SELECT DISTINCT be case-insensitive so that it returns either 7a or 7A but not both? Alternatively, I think I could get away with making the key in table t1 case-sensitive, though that would not be my first choice.

Thanks for the help.