# LOWER

## Syntax

```sql
LOWER(str)
LCASE(str)
```

## Description

Returns the string `str` with all characters changed to lowercase according to the current character set mapping. The default is latin1 (cp1252 West European).

`LCASE` is a synonym for `LOWER` .

## Examples

```sql
SELECT LOWER('QUADRATICALLY');
+------------------------+
| LOWER('QUADRATICALLY') |
+------------------------+
| quadratically          |
+------------------------+
```

`LOWER()` (and [UPPER](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/upper)()) are ineffective when applied to binary strings ([BINARY](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/binary), [VARBINARY](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/varbinary), [BLOB](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/blob)).\
To perform letter case conversion, [CONVERT](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-functions/string-functions/convert) the string to a non-binary string:

```sql
SET @str = BINARY 'North Carolina';

SELECT LOWER(@str), LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1));
+----------------+-----------------------------------+
| LOWER(@str)    | LOWER(CONVERT(@str USING latin1)) |
+----------------+-----------------------------------+
| North Carolina | north carolina                    |
+----------------+-----------------------------------+
```

<sub>*This page is licensed: GPLv2, originally from*</sub> [<sub>*fill\_help\_tables.sql*</sub>](https://github.com/MariaDB/server/blob/main/scripts/fill_help_tables.sql)

{% @marketo/form formId="4316" %}