字符值包含字母、数字和特殊符号。在字符值可以存储之前，字母、数字和字符必须转换为数值代码。所以必须建立一个转换表，其中包含了每个相关字符的数值代码。这样的转换表就称为字符集，有时也称为代码字符集（code character set）和字符编码（character encoding）。

      要想让计算机处理字符，不仅需要字符到数值的映射，还要考虑如果存储这些数值，所以便诞生了编码方案的概念。是定长存储呢，还是变长存储？是用一个字节还是用多个字节？仁者见仁，智者见智。依据需要的不同，诞生了很多的编码方案。对于Unicode，就存在UTF-8、UTF-16、UTF-32。

      而在MySQL中，字符集的概念和编码方案的概念被看作是同义词。一个字符集(character set)是一个转换表和一个编码方案的组合。校对（collation）的概念是为了解决排序的顺序或字符的分组问题。因为字符的排序和分组需要字符之间的比较，校对就定义了这些比较的大小关系。

显示可用的字符集

SHOW CHARACTER SET
或者
SELECT CHARACTER_SET_NAME,DESCRIPTION,DEFAULT_COLLATE_NAME,MAXLEN
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CHARACTER_SETS


显示字符集utf8可用的校对

SHOW COLLATION LIKE 'utf8%'
或者
SELECT *
FROM INFOMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS
WHERE COLLATION_NAME LIKE 'utf8%'

很多时候，数据库中或客户端显示乱码是由于字符集没有设置正确，用latin1字符集显示utf8字符集的数据当然会出现问题。这时需要查看数据库、表和列的字符集是否是你想要的；客户端的字符集是否的当。

如下是字符集和校对的系统变量

系统变量

说明

CHARACTER_SET_CLIENT

从客户机发送给服务器的语句的字符集

CHARACTER_SET_CONNECTION

客户机和服务器连接的字符集

CHARACTER_SET_DATABASE

当前数据库的默认字符集。每次使用USE语句来“跳转”到另一个数据库时，这个变量就会改变。如果没有当前数据库，其值为CHARACTER_SET_SERVER

CHARACTER_SET_RESULTS

从服务器发送到客户机的SELECT语句的最终结果的字符集，包括列的值，列的元数据——列名，错误信息

CHARACTER_SET_SERVER

服务器的默认字符集

CHARACTER_SET_SYSTEM

系统字符集。用于数据库中对象（如表和列）的名字，也用于存储在目录表中函数的名字。其值总是等于utf8

CHARACTER_SET_DIR

注册的所有字符的文件都在这个目录中

COLLATION_CONNECTION

当前连接的校对

COLLATION_DATABASE

当前日期的默认校对。每次使用USE语句来“跳转”到另一个数据库时，这个变量就会改变。

COLLATION_SERVER

服务器默认校对

数据库对象的字符集的指定有如下继承关系：

Server -> Database -> Table -> Column

也就是说，如果后者没有显示指定字符集，那么将采用前者的字符集。

Server Character Set and Collation

MySQL Server has a server character set and a server collation. These can be set at server startup on the command line or in an option file and changed at runtime.

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. Therefore, the following three commands all have the same effect:

mysqld
mysqld --character-set-server=latin1
mysqld --character-set-server=latin1 \
--collation-server=latin1_swedish_ci

The server character set and collation are used as default values if the database character set and collation are not specified in CREATE DATABASE statements. They have no other purpose.

The current server character set and collation can be determined from the values of the character_set_serverand collation_server system variables. These variables can be changed at runtime.

Database Character Set and Collation

Every database has a database character set and a database collation. The CREATE DATABASE and ALTER DATABASE statements have optional clauses for specifying the database character set and collation:

db_name
charset_name
collation_name
db_name
charset_name
collation_name

The keyword SCHEMA can be used instead of DATABASE.

The database character set and collation are used as default values for table definitions if the table character set and collation are not specified in CREATE TABLE statements. The database character set also is used by LOAD DATA INFILE.

The character set and collation for the default database can be determined from the values of thecharacter_set_database and collation_database system variables. The server sets these variables whenever the default database changes. If there is no default database, the variables have the same value as the corresponding server-level system variables, character_set_server and collation_server.

Table Character Set and Collation

Every table has a table character set and a table collation. The CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE statements have optional clauses for specifying the table character set and collation:

tbl_name
column_list
charset_name
collation_name
tbl_name
charset_name
collation_name

Column Character Set and Collation

Every “character” column (that is, a column of type CHAR, VARCHAR, or TEXT) has a column character set and a column collation. Column definition syntax for CREATE TABLE and ALTER TABLE has optional clauses for specifying the column character set and collation:

col_name
col_length
charset_name
collation_name

These clauses can also be used for ENUM and SET columns:

col_name
val_list
charset_name
collation_name

Examples:

CREATE TABLE t1
(
    col1 VARCHAR(5)
      CHARACTER SET latin1
      COLLATE latin1_german1_ci
);

ALTER TABLE t1 MODIFY
    col1 VARCHAR(5)
      CHARACTER SET latin1
      COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci;

If you use ALTER TABLE to convert a column from one character set to another, MySQL attempts to map the data values, but if the character sets are incompatible, there may be data loss.

转换字符集注意事项：

ALTER [IGNORE] TABLE table

CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET charset [COLLATE collation] | [DEFAULT]CHARACTER SET charset [COLLATE collation]

CONVERT子句可能带来数据上的问题。因此，在使用该子句前，请确保做过备份并再完成前检查转换的数据。如果你有字符集列，在转换过程中数据有可能丢失，首先应该把该列转换为二进制大对象（BLOB）数据类型，接着转换成想要的数据类型和字符集。通常情况下，这种做法极好，因为BLOB数据不能转换字符集。

 Character String Literal Character Set and Collation

Every character string literal has a character set and a collation.

A character string literal may have an optional character set introducer and COLLATE clause:

charset_name
string
collation_name

Examples:

string
string
string

For the simple statement SELECT 'string', the string has the character set and collation defined by thecharacter_set_connection and collation_connection system variables.

The _charset_name expression is formally called an introducer. It tells the parser, “the string that is about to follow uses character set X.” Because this has confused people in the past, we emphasize that an introducer does not change the string to the introducer character set like CONVERT() would do. It does not change the string's value, although padding may occur. The introducer is just a signal. An introducer is also legal before standard hex literal and numeric hex literal notation (x'literal' and 0xnnnn), or before bit-field literal notation (b'literal'and 0bnnnn).

 

National Character Set

标准的SQL中使用NCHAR，NVARCHAR等表示国际字符集。但是MySQL不是，它只有CHAR和VARCHAR。需要通过设置字符集来达到存储存储其他字符的目的。

 For example, these data type declarations are equivalent:

CHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8
NATIONAL CHARACTER(10)
NCHAR(10)

As are these:

VARCHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8
NATIONAL VARCHAR(10)
NCHAR VARCHAR(10)
NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING(10)
NATIONAL CHAR VARYING(10)

You can use N'literal' (or n'literal') to create a string in the national character set. These statements are equivalent:

SELECT N'some text';
SELECT n'some text';
SELECT _utf8'some text';

Connection Character Sets and Collations

Two statements affect the connection-related character set variables as a group:

SET NAMES 'charset_name' [COLLATE 'collation_name']

  • SET NAMES indicates what character set the client will use to send SQL statements to the server. Thus, SET NAMES 'cp1251' tells the server, “future incoming messages from this client are in character set cp1251.” It also specifies the character set that the server should use for sending results back to the client. (For example, it indicates what character set to use for column values if you use a SELECT statement.)
    A SET NAMES 'x' statement is equivalent to these three statements:
x
x
x

Setting character_set_connection to x also implicitly sets collation_connection to the default collation forx. It is unnecessary to set that collation explicitly. To specify a particular collation, use the optional COLLATE clause:

charset_name
collation_name

SET CHARACTER SET charset_name

x
x

Setting collation_connection also implicitly sets character_set_connection to the character set associated with the collation (equivalent to executing SET character_set_connection = @@character_set_database). It is unnecessary to set character_set_connection explicitly.

Note

ucs2, utf16, and utf32 cannot be used as a client character set, which means that they do not work for SET NAMES or SET CHARACTER SET.

The MySQL client programs mysql, mysqladmin, mysqlcheck, mysqlimport, and mysqlshow determine the default character set to use as follows:

  • In the absence of other information, the programs use the compiled-in default character set, usually latin1.
  • The programs can autodetect which character set to use based on the operating system setting, such as the value of the LANG or LC_ALL locale environment variable on Unix systems or the code page setting on Windows systems. For systems on which the locale is available from the OS, the client uses it to set the default character set rather than using the compiled-in default. For example, setting LANG to ru_RU.KOI8-R causes the koi8r character set to be used. Thus, users can configure the locale in their environment for use by MySQL clients.
    The OS character set is mapped to the closest MySQL character set if there is no exact match. If the client does not support the matching character set, it uses the compiled-in default. For example, ucs2 is not supported as a connection character set.
    C applications that wish to use character set autodetection based on the OS setting can invoke the followingmysql_options() call before connecting to the server:
mysql_options(mysql,
              MYSQL_SET_CHARSET_NAME,
              MYSQL_AUTODETECT_CHARSET_NAME);
  • The programs support a --default-character-set option, which enables users to specify the character set explicitly to override whatever default the client otherwise determines.

Note

Before MySQL 5.5, in the absence of other information, the MySQL client programs used the compiled-in default character set, usually latin1. An implication of this difference is that if your environment is configured to use a non-latin1 locale, MySQL client programs will use a different connection character set than previously, as though you had issued an implicit SET NAMES statement. If the previous behavior is required, start the client with the --default-character-set=latin1 option.

When a client connects to the server, it sends the name of the character set that it wants to use. The server uses the name to set the character_set_client, character_set_results, and character_set_connectionsystem variables. In effect, the server performs a SET NAMES operation using the character set name.

With the mysql client, if you want to use a character set different from the default, you could explicitly execute SET NAMES every time you start up. However, to accomplish the same result more easily, you can add the --default-character-set option setting to your mysql command line or in your option file. For example, the following option file setting changes the three connection-related character set variables set to koi8r each time you invoke mysql:

[mysql]
default-character-set=koi8r

To see the values of the character set and collation system variables that apply to your connection, use these statements:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%';
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';

If you change the default character set or collation for a database, stored routines that use the database defaults must be dropped and recreated so that they use the new defaults. (In a stored routine, variables with character data types use the database defaults if the character set or collation are not specified explicitly.

校对命名规则

Collation Names

MySQL collation names follow these rules:

  • A name ending in _ci indicates a case-insensitive collation.
  • A name ending in _cs indicates a case-sensitive collation.
  • A name ending in _bin indicates a binary collation. Character comparisons are based on character binary code values.

Nonbinary strings have PADSPACE behavior for all collations, including_bin collations. Trailing spaces are insignificant in comparisons:（也就是说，字符串中末尾的空格不起作用）

SET NAMES utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin;
SELECT 'a ' = 'a';

For binary strings, all characters are significant in comparisons, including trailing spaces:

SET NAMES binary;
SELECT 'a ' = 'a';

The BINARY Operator

The BINARY operator casts the string following it to a binary string. This is an easy way to force a comparison to be done byte by byte rather than character by character. BINARY also causes trailing spaces to be significant.

SELECT 'a' = 'A';
SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'A';
SELECT 'a' = 'a ';
SELECT BINARY 'a' = 'a ';

BINARY str is shorthand for CAST(str AS BINARY).

The BINARY attribute in character column definitions has a different effect. A character column defined with theBINARY attribute is assigned the binary collation of the column character set. Every character set has a binary collation. For example, the binary collation for the latin1 character set is latin1_bin, so if the table default character set is latin1, these two column definitions are equivalent:

CHAR(10) BINARY
CHAR(10) CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_bin

 INFORMATION_SCHEMA Searches

String columns in INFORMATION_SCHEMA tables have a collation of utf8_general_ci, which is case insensitive. However, searches in INFORMATION_SCHEMA string columns are also affected by file system case sensitivity. For values that correspond to objects that are represented in the file system, such as names of databases and tables, searches may be case sensitive if the file system is case sensitive. This section describes how to work around this issue if necessary; see also Bug #34921.

Suppose that a query searches the SCHEMATA.SCHEMA_NAME column for the test database. On Linux, file systems are case sensitive, so comparisons of SCHEMATA.SCHEMA_NAME with 'test' match, but comparisons with 'TEST'do not:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'test';
SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'TEST';

On Windows or Mac OS X where file systems are not case sensitive, comparisons match both 'test' and 'TEST':

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'test';
SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'TEST';

The value of the lower_case_table_names system variable makes no difference in this context.

This behavior occurs because the utf8_general_ci collation is not used for INFORMATION_SCHEMA queries when searching the file system for database objects. It is a result of optimizations implemented for INFORMATION_SCHEMAsearches in MySQL. For information about these optimizations, see Section 7.2.4, “OptimizingINFORMATION_SCHEMA Queries”.

Searches in INFORMATION_SCHEMA string columns for values that refer to INFORMATION_SCHEMA itself do use theutf8_general_ci collation because INFORMATION_SCHEMA is a “virtual” database and is not represented in the file system. For example, comparisons with SCHEMATA.SCHEMA_NAME match 'information_schema' or'INFORMATION_SCHEMA' regardless of platform:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'information_schema';
SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME = 'INFORMATION_SCHEMA';

If the result of a string operation on an INFORMATION_SCHEMA column differs from expectations, a workaround is to use an explicit COLLATE clause to force a suitable collation (Section 9.1.7.2, “Using COLLATE in SQL Statements”). For example, to perform a case-insensitive search, use COLLATE with the INFORMATION_SCHEMA column name:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME COLLATE utf8_general_ci = 'test';
SELECT SCHEMA_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA
WHERE SCHEMA_NAME COLLATE utf8_general_ci = 'TEST';

You can also use the UPPER() or LOWER() function:

WHERE UPPER(SCHEMA_NAME) = 'TEST'
WHERE LOWER(SCHEMA_NAME) = 'test'

详细MySQL字符集参考帮助手册：http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/globalization.html