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Setting the character set in MySQL

schedule Aug 12, 2023
Last updated
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MySQL
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We can set the character set at a server, database, table or column level in MySQL.

Syntax

To map all strings sent between the MySQL server and the current client with a particular character set:

SET CHARSET 'charset_name';

To set the character set back to the default:

SET CHARSET DEFAULT;

To set the database character set and collation:

ALTER DATABASE database_name CHARACTER SET 'charset_name' COLLATE 'collation_name';

To set the table character set and collation:

ALTER TABLE table_name CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET 'charset_name' COLLATE 'collation_name';

To set the column character set and collation:

ALTER TABLE database_name.table_name
MODIFY column_name datatype CHARACTER SET 'charset_name' COLLATE 'collation_name';

Examples

Server

To set the character set of all strings sent to MySQL server as latin2:

SET CHARSET 'latin2';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Database

To set the character set to latin2 for a database called tutorial:

ALTER DATABASE tutorial CHARACTER SET 'latin2' COLLATE 'latin2_general_ci';
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

To check the character set has been changed for tutorial:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME 'database', default_character_set_name
FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'tutorial';
+----------+----------------------------+
| database | DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET_NAME |
+----------+----------------------------+
| tutorial | latin2 |
+----------+----------------------------+

Table

To set the character set to latin2 for a table called students:

ALTER TABLE students CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET 'latin2' COLLATE 'latin2_general_ci';
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.04 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

To check the character set for students table has indeed been changed:

SELECT t.TABLE_NAME, ccsa.CHARACTER_SET_NAME, t.TABLE_COLLATION
FROM information_schema.tables t, information_schema.collation_character_set_applicability ccsa
WHERE t.table_collation = ccsa.collation_name
AND t.TABLE_SCHEMA = 'people'
AND t.TABLE_NAME = 'students';
+------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| TABLE_NAME | CHARACTER_SET_NAME | TABLE_COLLATION |
+------------+--------------------+-------------------+
| students | latin2 | latin2_general_ci |
+------------+--------------------+-------------------+

Column

To set the character set to latin1 for column fname within table students:

ALTER TABLE people.students
MODIFY fname VARCHAR(50) CHARACTER SET 'latin1' COLLATE 'latin1_general_ci';
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.02 sec)
Records: 5 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0

To check the column character set and collation has now been updated:

SHOW FULL COLUMNS
FROM students;
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+
| Field | Type | Collation | Null | Key | Default | Extra | Privileges | Comment |
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+
| student_id | int unsigned | NULL | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | select,insert,update,references | |
| fname | varchar(50) | latin1_general_ci | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update,references | |
| lname | varchar(30) | latin2_general_ci | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update,references | |
| day_enrolled | date | NULL | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update,references | |
| age | int | NULL | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update,references | |
| username | varchar(15) | latin2_general_ci | YES | | NULL | | select,insert,update,references | |
+--------------+--------------+-------------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+---------------------------------+---------+
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Published by Arthur Yanagisawa
Edited by 0 others
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