# Django 1.8.18.dev20170123152445 documentation

# PostgreSQL specific lookups

## Unaccent

The `unaccent` lookup allows you to perform accent-insensitive lookups using a dedicated PostgreSQL extension.

This lookup is implemented using `Transform`, so it can be chained with other lookup functions. To use it, you need to add `'django.contrib.postgres'` in your `INSTALLED_APPS` and activate the unaccent extension on PostgreSQL. The `UnaccentExtension` migration operation is available if you want to perform this activation using migrations).

The `unaccent` lookup can be used on `CharField` and `TextField`:

    >>> City.objects.filter(name__unaccent="México")
    ['<City: Mexico>']

    >>> User.objects.filter(first_name__unaccent__startswith="Jerem")
    ['<User: Jeremy>', '<User: Jérémy>', '<User: Jérémie>', '<User: Jeremie>']

Warning

`unaccent` lookups should perform fine in most use cases. However, queries using this filter will generally perform full table scans, which can be slow on large tables. In those cases, using dedicated full text indexing tools might be appropriate.