This function is used to set the default character set for the current connection. The string csname specifies a valid character set name. The connection collation becomes the default collation of the character set. This function works like the SET NAMES statement, but also sets the value of mysql->charset, and thus affects the character set used by mysql_real_escape_string()

Zero for success. Nonzero if an error occurred.

MYSQL mysql;

mysql_init(&mysql);
if (!mysql_real_connect(&mysql,"host","user","passwd","database",0,NULL,0))
{
    fprintf(stderr, "Failed to connect to database: Error: %s\n",
          mysql_error(&mysql));
}

if (!mysql_set_character_set(&mysql, "utf8"))
{
    printf("New client character set: %s\n",
           mysql_character_set_name(&mysql));
}