title: MySQL UPPER() and LOWER() not working with utf-8 characters
body: <p>I have a search function, I want it to be case insensitive, including characters like éüò etc. </p>
  
  <p>So, i transform the input to uppercase before querying the database. But MySQL doesn't convert the accented characters right.</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT * FROM items WHERE UPPER(description) = $input
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have MySQL 5.1.32, i have tried different collations but none seem to work right. Same with LOWER().</p>
  
  <pre><code>CREATE TABLE `items` (
    `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `name` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
    `description` text CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin,
    PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
  ) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=187 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The description field contains 'hellö'. Mysql converts it to 'HELLö'. I want 'HELLÖ'.</p>