case sensitivity from FOLDOC

<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>case sensitivity from FOLDOC</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="default-src 'unsafe-inline' http: https:"> <meta name="verify-v1" content="siAI0ZOMn41hao0E/T76D1I2L3MtFjzE48P3ctCjRNU="> <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#da532c"> <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"> <meta name="google-translate-customization" content="828219db36930e1e-c51d915bf2ea717c-g9b503f9a85d5b5a7-a">  <script src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-9715943-1"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'UA-9715943-1'); </script>  <link href="//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Duru+Sans%7CBelgrano%7CInconsolata%7CAlef%7CArmata" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/layout.css?2">  <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="152x152" href="/im/apple-touch-icon.png"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/im/favicon-32x32.png"> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/im/favicon-16x16.png"> <link rel="manifest" href="/im/site.webmanifest"> <link rel="mask-icon" href="/im/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#5bbad5"> <link rel="canonical" href="https://foldoc.org/case+sensitivity"> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="FOLDOC" href="/rss.xml"> <link rel="search" title="FOLDOC" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" href="//foldoc.org/search.xml">  <script async src="https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5521724329338202" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>  </head> <body> <div id="fb-root"></div> <script> (function (d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); </script> <div id="container"> <div id="left"> <a href="/"> <img src="/foldoc.gif" width="300" height="98" alt="Free On-line Dictionary of Computing" class="logo"> </a> <div id="nav"> <a href="/contents.html" class="button">Contents</a> <a href="/help.html" class="button">Help</a> <a href="/random-entry" class="button">Random</a> </div> <form action="/"> <input type="text" name="query" id="query" autofocus="autofocus"> <input type="submit" name="action" value="Search" class="button"> </form> <div id="content"> <h3>case sensitive ⇝</h3> <h2>case sensitivity</h2> <p></p> <p><<i><a href="contents/text.html">text</a></i>></p> <p> Whether a text matching operation distinguishes upper-<a href="/case">case</a> (capital) letters from lower case (is "case sensitive") or not ("case insensitive"). <p></p> Case in file names should be preserved (for readability) but ignored when matching (so the user doesn't have to get it right). <a href="/MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a> does not preserve case in file names, <a href="/Unix">Unix</a> preserves case and matches are case sensitive. <p></p> Any decent <a href="/text+editor">text editor</a> will allow the user to specify whether or not text searches should be <a href="/case+sensitive">case sensitive</a>. <p></p> Case sensitivity is also relevant in programming (most programming languages distiguish between case in the names of <a href="/identifiers">identifiers</a>), and addressing (<a href="/Internet">Internet</a> <a href="/domain+names">domain names</a> are case insensitive but <a href="/RFC+822">RFC 822</a> local <a href="/mailbox">mailbox</a> names are case sensitive). <p></p> Case insensitive operations are sometimes said to "fold case", from the idea of folding the character code table so that upper and lower case letters coincide. The alternative "smash case" is more likely to be used by someone who considers this behaviour a <a href="/misfeature">misfeature</a> or in cases where one case is actually permanently converted to the other. <p></p> "<a href="/MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a> will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create". <p></p> <p class="updated">Last updated: <a href="/new.html">1997-07-09</a></p> <p></p> <p class="vertical-space"></p><h3>Nearby terms:</h3> <p class="neighbours"> <a href="/case+sensitive">case sensitive</a> &diams; <b><a href="/case+sensitivity">case sensitivity</a></b> &diams; <a href="/CASE+SOAP+III">CASE SOAP III</a> &diams; <a href="/case+statement">case statement</a> </p> <p> Try this search on <a href="https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=case+sensitivity">Wikipedia</a>, <a href="https://www.wiktionary.org/wiki/case+sensitivity">Wiktionary</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=define:case+sensitivity">Google</a>, <a href="https://www.onelook.com/?w=case+sensitivity">OneLook</a>. </p> <p class="vertical-space"></p> <hr> <div></div> <hr>  <div id="HCB_comment_box">Loading</div> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="//www.htmlcommentbox.com/static/skins/bootstrap/twitter-bootstrap.css?v=0"> <script language="javascript" id="hcb"> hcb_user = { PAGE: 'https://foldoc.org/case+sensitivity', comments_header: ' ', no_comments_msg: ' ', err_comment_empty: 'Your comment was not posted because it was empty!', rss: '', }; var s = document.createElement("script"); s.setAttribute("type", "text/javascript"); s.setAttribute("src", "//www.htmlcommentbox.com/jread?page=" + escape(hcb_user.PAGE).replace(/\+/g, "%2B") + "&mod=%241%24wq1rdBcg%24.0y2uzvjA2bsnhzpXVq9F." + "&opts=17374&num=10"); // No e-mail field: 16846 if (typeof s != "undefined") document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s); </script> <script> setTimeout(function () { document.getElementById('hcb_form_content').rows = 1 }, 1000); </script> <hr>  </div>  </div>  <div id="right"> <div id="google_translate_element"> <script> function googleTranslateElementInit() { new google.translate.TranslateElement({ pageLanguage: 'en' }, 'google_translate_element'); } </script> <script src="https://translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit"></script> </div> <p><br></p> <hr> <div id="social"> <div class="fb-like" data-href="http://foldoc.org/" data-layout="button_count" data-action="like" data-show-faces="false" data-share="true"> </div> <a href="https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-via="foldoc"> Tweet </a> <script> if (!document.getElementById('twitter-wjs')) { var fjs = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0], js = document.createElement('script'); js.id = 'twitter-wjs'; js.src = 'https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); } </script> </div> <hr> <div> <p></p> </div> <p> <a href="/rss.xml"> <img src="/orangerss.gif" width="14" height="14" alt="RSS feed of new items"> </a>   <a href="/new.html">Recent Updates</a>     |     <a href="/missing.html">Missing Terms</a> </p> <p>Updated: Sat, 05 Apr 2025 21:25:49 GMT</p> <p>15282 entries</p> <p><em><a href="/Free+On-line+Dictionary">Copyright Denis Howe 1985</a></em></p> </div>  </div>   <script type="text/javascript"> window._qevents = window._qevents || []; (function() { var elem = document.createElement('script'); elem.src = 'https://secure.quantserve.com/quant.js'; elem.async = true; elem.type = 'text/javascript'; var scpt = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; scpt.parentNode.insertBefore(elem, scpt); })(); window._qevents.push({ qacct: 'p-48Rosdvs3EiOc', uid: '__INSERT_EMAIL_HERE__' }); </script> <noscript> <div style="display:none;"> <img src="https//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-48Rosdvs3EiOc.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/> </div> </noscript>  </body> </html>

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case sensitivity from FOLDOC