Sets the character set for the current client session, controlling how the client sends data to and receives data from the server.
SET CHARACTER SET updates three session variables:
character_set_client: set tocharset_namecharacter_set_results: set tocharset_namecharacter_set_connection: set to the current value ofcharacter_set_database, notcharset_name
Syntax
SET {CHARACTER SET | CHARSET}
{'charset_name' | DEFAULT}charset_name can be quoted or unquoted. CHARSET is an alias for CHARACTER SET.
Example
The example below shows session variable values before and after running SET CHARSET 'big5'.
Before
SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'character\_set\_%';
+--------------------------+---------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+---------+
| character_set_client | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_connection | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_database | utf8 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
+--------------------------+---------+
7 rows in set (0.01 sec)After
SET CHARSET 'big5';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.06 sec)
SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE 'character\_set\_%';
+--------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+--------+
| character_set_client | big5 |
| character_set_connection | utf8 |
| character_set_database | utf8 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | big5 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
+--------------------------+--------+
7 rows in set (0.21 sec)character_set_client and character_set_results are set to big5. character_set_connection is set to utf8, the current value of character_set_database, not big5.