How do I see what character set a MySQL database / table / column is?

Here's how I'd do it -

For Schemas (or Databases - they are synonyms):

SELECT default_character_set_name FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA 
WHERE schema_name = "schemaname";

For Tables:

SELECT CCSA.character_set_name FROM information_schema.`TABLES` T,
       information_schema.`COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY` CCSA
WHERE CCSA.collation_name = T.table_collation
  AND T.table_schema = "schemaname"
  AND T.table_name = "tablename";

For Columns:

SELECT character_set_name FROM information_schema.`COLUMNS` 
WHERE table_schema = "schemaname"
  AND table_name = "tablename"
  AND column_name = "columnname";

---

For columns:

SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM table_name;

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For databases:

USE your_database_name;
show variables like "character_set_database";
-- or:
-- show variables like "collation_database";

Cf. this page. And check out the MySQL manual

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For all the databases you have on the server:

mysql> SELECT SCHEMA_NAME 'database', default_character_set_name 'charset', DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME 'collation' FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA;

Output:

+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+
| database                   | charset | collation          |
+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+
| information_schema         | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| my_database                | latin1  | latin1_swedish_ci  |
...
+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+

For a single Database:

mysql> USE my_database;
mysql> show variables like "character_set_database";

Output:

    +----------------------------+---------+
    | Variable_name              |  Value  |
    +----------------------------+---------+
    | character_set_database     |  latin1 | 
    +----------------------------+---------+

Getting the collation for Tables:

mysql> USE my_database;
mysql> SHOW TABLE STATUS WHERE NAME LIKE 'my_tablename';

OR - will output the complete SQL for create table:

mysql> show create table my_tablename

Getting the collation of columns:

mysql> SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM my_tablename;

output:

+---------+--------------+--------------------+ ....
| field   | type         | collation          |
+---------+--------------+--------------------+ ....
| id      | int(10)      | (NULL)             |
| key     | varchar(255) | latin1_swedish_ci  |
| value   | varchar(255) | latin1_swedish_ci  |
+---------+--------------+--------------------+ ....

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For tables:

SHOW TABLE STATUS will list all the tables.

Filter using:

SHOW TABLE STATUS where name like 'table_123';

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To see default collation of the database:

USE db_name;
SELECT @@character_set_database, @@collation_database;

To see collation of the table:

SHOW TABLE STATUS where name like 'table_name';

To see collation of the columns:

SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM table_name;

To see the default character set of a table

SHOW CREATE TABLE table_name;

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For databases:

Just use these commands:

USE db_name;
SELECT @@character_set_database;
-- or:
-- SELECT @@collation_database;

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SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA,
       TABLE_NAME,
       CCSA.CHARACTER_SET_NAME AS DEFAULT_CHAR_SET,
       COLUMN_NAME,
       COLUMN_TYPE,
       C.CHARACTER_SET_NAME
  FROM information_schema.TABLES AS T
  JOIN information_schema.COLUMNS AS C USING (TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME)
  JOIN information_schema.COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY AS CCSA
       ON (T.TABLE_COLLATION = CCSA.COLLATION_NAME)
 WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA=SCHEMA()
   AND C.DATA_TYPE IN ('enum', 'varchar', 'char', 'text', 'mediumtext', 'longtext')
 ORDER BY TABLE_SCHEMA,
          TABLE_NAME,
          COLUMN_NAME
;

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I always just look at SHOW CREATE TABLE mydatabase.mytable.

For the database, it appears you need to look at SELECT DEFAULT_CHARACTER_SET_NAME FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA.

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For tables and columns:

show create table your_table_name

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For databases:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME 'database', default_character_set_name 'charset', DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME 'collation' FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA;

Example output:

mysql> SELECT SCHEMA_NAME 'database', default_character_set_name 'charset', DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME 'collation' FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA;
+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+
| database                   | charset | collation          |
+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+
| information_schema         | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| drupal_demo1               | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| drupal_demo2               | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| drupal_demo3               | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| drupal_demo4               | utf8    | utf8_general_ci    |
| drupal_demo5               | latin1  | latin1_swedish_ci  |

...

+----------------------------+---------+--------------------+
55 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> 

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For databases:

SHOW CREATE DATABASE "DB_NAME_HERE";

In creating a Database (MySQL), default character set/collation is always LATIN, instead that you have selected a different one on initially creating your database

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As many wrote earlier, SHOW FULL COLUMNS should be the preferred method to get column information. What's missing is a way to get charset after that without reaching metadata tables directly:

SHOW FULL COLUMNS FROM my_table WHERE Field = 'my_field'
SHOW COLLATION WHERE Collation = 'collation_you_got'

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For database : USE db_name; SELECT @@character_set_database;

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show global variables where variable_name like 'character_set_%' or variable_name like 'collation%'

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