====== Character Sets ======
  * List available character sets
    * SHOW CHARACTER SET;
  * List collation for character set
    * SHOW COLLATION LIKE 'latin1%';
  * Find character set and collation for a specific database
    * SHOW CREATE DATABASE databasename;
  * Find character set and collation for a specific table
    * SHOW CREATE TABLE tablename;
  * Find character set and collation for columns
    * SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM tablename;

===== Changing/Setting the Character Set =====
Initially, the server character set and collation depend on the options that you use when you start mysqld. You can use --character-set-server for the character set. Along with it, you can add --collation-server for the collation. If you don't specify a character set, that is the same as saying --character-set-server=latin1. If you specify only a character set (for example, latin1) but not a collation, that is the same as saying --character-set-server=latin1  --collation-server=latin1_swedish_ci because latin1_swedish_ci is the default collation for latin1. 

===== Notes =====
  * Two different character sets cannot have the same collation.
  * Each character set has one collation that is the default collation. For example, the default collation for latin1 is latin1_swedish_ci. The output for SHOW CHARACTER SET indicates which collation is the default for each displayed character set.
  * There is a convention for collation names: They start with the name of the character set with which they are associated, they usually include a language name, and they end with _ci (case insensitive), _cs (case sensitive), or _bin (binary).

===== See Also =====
  * [[alter_table|ALTER TABLE]]
  * [[show|SHOW]]

===== External Links =====
  * http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/4.1/en/charset.html