unique string

I have this table below. I want to make constraint that name is unique. How to make string unique in database?

create table status (
id SMALLINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
name VARCHAR(255),
)

Thanks

With a unique index.

If you do it when creating a table you do it like this:

create table status (
id SMALLINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
name VARCHAR(255),
unique (name)
)

If you already have a table and want to set a column to unique you do the following:

ALTER TABLE status ADD UNIQUE (name)

Thanks

Make sure that your collation setup does or doesn't distinguish between upper / lower case as your needs dictate.

I.e. is it ok, or not ok, for Bill and bill to both be in that table?