Default MySQL character set and collation
Author: admin admin Reference Number: AA-00394 Views: 14633 Created: 2013-06-15 07:02 Last Updated: 2013-06-15 07:03 0 Rating/ Voters

Overview

The default character set for MySQL is latin1, with a default collation of latin1_swedish_ci. This is a common type of encoding for Latin characters. You can also change the encoding. utf8 is a common character set for non-Latin characters.

You can change the character set and collation of your databases and tables through phpMyAdmin.  You may want to back up your database before making changes. Please see this article for instructions: Export and import MySQL databases.


  1. Log into PHPMyadmin
  2. Select your database from the list on the left.
  3. Click on "Operations" from the top set of tabs.
  4. In the Collation box, choose your new collation from the dropdown menu. utf8_general_ci is the most common utf8 collation.
  5. Select your database from the list on the left.
  6. Click on "Operations" from the top set of tabs, see Figure 1:


    Figure 1.

  7. In the Collation box, choose your new collation from the dropdown menu. utf8_general_ci is the most common utf8 collation. See Figure 2.


    Figure 2.

  8. Click Go.
  9. To update a database table, select it from the list on the left. See Figure 3.

     
    Figure 3.

  10. Click on "Operations" from the top set of tabs. See Figure 4.


    Figure 4.

  11. In "Table options," under "Collation," choose your new collation from the dropdown menu. See Figure 5.


    Figure 5.

  12. Click Go.
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