MySQL database with unique fields ignored ending spaces

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My projects requires to start inputs from the user with the spacing on the left and spacing on the right of a word, for example 'apple'. If the user types in ' apple' or 'apple ', whether it is one space or multiple space on the left or right of the word, I need to store it that way.

This field has the Unique attribute, but I attempt to insert the word with spacing on the left, and it works fine. But when I attempt to insert the word with spacing on the right it trims off all the spacing from the right of the word.

So I am thinking of adding a special character to the right of the word after the spacing. But I am hoping there is a better solution for this issue.

CREATE TABLE strings
( id bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
string varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
created_ts timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
PRIMARY KEY (id), UNIQUE KEY string (string) )
ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin
mysql5 mysql
4 Answers

Thanks to @kennethc. His answer works for me. Add a string length field to the table and to the unique key. 

CREATE TABLE strings
( id bigint(20) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
string varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
created_ts timestamp NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
string_length int(3),
PRIMARY KEY (id), UNIQUE KEY string (string,string_length) )
ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=1 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_bin

In MySQL it's possible to update the string length field with couple of triggers like this:

CREATE TRIGGER `string_length_insert` BEFORE INSERT ON `strings` FOR EACH ROW SET NEW.string_length = char_length(NEW.string);
CREATE TRIGGER `string_length_update` BEFORE UPDATE ON `strings` FOR EACH ROW SET NEW.string_length = char_length(NEW.string);
user_56550360
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