SET CHARACTER SET

Syntax

SET {CHARACTER SET | CHARSET}
    {charset_name | DEFAULT}

Description

Sets the character_set_client and character_set_results session system variables to the specified character set and collation_connection to the value of collation_database, which implicitly sets character_set_connection to the value of character_set_database.

This maps all strings sent between the current client and the server with the given mapping.

Example

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set\_%';
+--------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name            | Value  |
+--------------------------+--------+
| character_set_client     | utf8   |
| character_set_connection | utf8   |
| character_set_database   | latin1 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results    | utf8   |
| character_set_server     | latin1 |
| character_set_system     | utf8   |
+--------------------------+--------+

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
+----------------------+-------------------+
| Variable_name        | Value             |
+----------------------+-------------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci   |
| collation_database   | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
+----------------------+-------------------+

SET CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set\_%';
+--------------------------+---------+
| Variable_name            | Value   |
+--------------------------+---------+
| character_set_client     | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_connection | latin1  |
| character_set_database   | latin1  |
| character_set_filesystem | binary  |
| character_set_results    | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_server     | latin1  |
| character_set_system     | utf8    |
+--------------------------+---------+

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
+----------------------+-------------------+
| Variable_name        | Value             |
+----------------------+-------------------+
| collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_database   | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
+----------------------+-------------------+

See Also

• Setting Character Sets and Collations
• SET NAMES