Postgresql lowercase to compare data

Question

I want to get the contents from a row in the Postgresql database and compare the lowercase version of it to a lowercase version of a user input to check if it exists in the database.

i tried:

"SELECT LOWER(name) FROM user_names WHERE name LIKE '%$search%' ORDER BY name ASC"

but that make query not working at all.

EDIT

I am trying to implement an autocomplete Jquery UI like here: http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/#remote for search box (for names)

using javascript and php.

php code:

$search = ($_GET['term']);
       if (!$con)
        { die('Could not connect: ' . pg_last_error ());}

       else
        {

        $sql = "SELECT name FROM users_table WHERE name LIKE '%$search%' ORDER BY name ASC";
        $result = pg_query($sql);
        $json = '[';
        $first = true;
        while ($row = pg_fetch_array($result))
        {

        if (!$first) { $json .=  ','; } else { $first = false; }
        $json .= '{"value":"'.$row['name'].'"}';
    }
    $json .= ']';
    echo $json;

    exit();

    }

JavaScript code:

   $(document).ready(function()
    {
        $('#auto').autocomplete(
        {
            source: "./file.php",
            minLength: 3

        })

})

all above work great.. exactly like in Demo here: http://jqueryui.com/demos/autocomplete/#remote

my problem is that the names in database stored in Uppercase (e.g. LORI) and of course the user prefers to insert a lowercase in search box to search for name (e.g. lori). but since it stored in uppercase, i need to convert it.

i tried as your suggestion :

$sql = "SELECT LOWER(name) FROM users_table WHERE name ILIKE '%$search%' ORDER BY name ASC";

then i got an empty drop down list! pretty weird!

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Google is your friend:

SELECT LOWER(name) FROM user_names 
WHERE name ILIKE '%$search%' ORDER BY name ASC