MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual Including MySQL NDB Cluster 8.0
MySQL Server supports multiple character sets, including several
Unicode character sets. To display the available character sets,
use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA
CHARACTER_SETS table or the
SHOW CHARACTER SET statement. A
partial listing follows. For more complete information, see
Section 12.10, “Supported Character Sets and Collations”.
mysql> SHOW CHARACTER SET;
+----------+---------------------------------+---------------------+--------+
| Charset | Description | Default collation | Maxlen |
+----------+---------------------------------+---------------------+--------+
| big5 | Big5 Traditional Chinese | big5_chinese_ci | 2 |
| binary | Binary pseudo charset | binary | 1 |
...
| latin1 | cp1252 West European | latin1_swedish_ci | 1 |
...
| ucs2 | UCS-2 Unicode | ucs2_general_ci | 2 |
...
| utf8mb3 | UTF-8 Unicode | utf8mb3_general_ci | 3 |
| utf8mb4 | UTF-8 Unicode | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | 4 |
...
By default, the SHOW CHARACTER SET
statement displays all available character sets. It takes an
optional LIKE or
WHERE clause that indicates which character set
names to match. The following example shows some of the Unicode
character sets (those based on Unicode Transformation Format):
mysql> SHOW CHARACTER SET LIKE 'utf%';
+---------+------------------+--------------------+--------+
| Charset | Description | Default collation | Maxlen |
+---------+------------------+--------------------+--------+
| utf16 | UTF-16 Unicode | utf16_general_ci | 4 |
| utf16le | UTF-16LE Unicode | utf16le_general_ci | 4 |
| utf32 | UTF-32 Unicode | utf32_general_ci | 4 |
| utf8mb3 | UTF-8 Unicode | utf8mb3_general_ci | 3 |
| utf8mb4 | UTF-8 Unicode | utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | 4 |
+---------+------------------+--------------------+--------+
A given character set always has at least one collation, and most
character sets have several. To list the display collations for a
character set, use the INFORMATION_SCHEMA
COLLATIONS table or the
SHOW COLLATION statement.
By default, the SHOW COLLATION
statement displays all available collations. It takes an optional
LIKE or WHERE
clause that indicates which collation names to display. For
example, to see the collations for the default character set,
utf8mb4, use this statement:
mysql> SHOW COLLATION WHERE Charset = 'utf8mb4';
+----------------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
| Collation | Charset | Id | Default | Compiled | Sortlen | Pad_attribute |
+----------------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
| utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 255 | Yes | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_0900_as_ci | utf8mb4 | 305 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 278 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_0900_bin | utf8mb4 | 309 | | Yes | 1 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_bin | utf8mb4 | 46 | | Yes | 1 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_croatian_ci | utf8mb4 | 245 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_cs_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 266 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_cs_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 289 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_czech_ci | utf8mb4 | 234 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_danish_ci | utf8mb4 | 235 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_da_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 267 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_da_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 290 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_de_pb_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 256 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_de_pb_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 279 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_eo_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 273 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_eo_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 296 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_esperanto_ci | utf8mb4 | 241 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_estonian_ci | utf8mb4 | 230 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_es_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 263 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_es_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 286 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_es_trad_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 270 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_es_trad_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 293 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_et_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 262 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_et_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 285 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_general_ci | utf8mb4 | 45 | | Yes | 1 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_german2_ci | utf8mb4 | 244 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_hr_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 275 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_hr_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 298 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_hungarian_ci | utf8mb4 | 242 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_hu_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 274 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_hu_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 297 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_icelandic_ci | utf8mb4 | 225 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_is_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 257 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_is_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 280 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_ja_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 303 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_ja_0900_as_cs_ks | utf8mb4 | 304 | | Yes | 24 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_latvian_ci | utf8mb4 | 226 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_la_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 271 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_la_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 294 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_lithuanian_ci | utf8mb4 | 236 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_lt_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 268 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_lt_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 291 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_lv_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 258 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_lv_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 281 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_persian_ci | utf8mb4 | 240 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_pl_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 261 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_pl_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 284 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_polish_ci | utf8mb4 | 229 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_romanian_ci | utf8mb4 | 227 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_roman_ci | utf8mb4 | 239 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_ro_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 259 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_ro_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 282 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_ru_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 306 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_ru_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 307 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_sinhala_ci | utf8mb4 | 243 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_sk_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 269 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_sk_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 292 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_slovak_ci | utf8mb4 | 237 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_slovenian_ci | utf8mb4 | 228 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_sl_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 260 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_sl_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 283 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_spanish2_ci | utf8mb4 | 238 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_spanish_ci | utf8mb4 | 231 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_sv_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 264 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_sv_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 287 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_swedish_ci | utf8mb4 | 232 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_tr_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 265 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_tr_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 288 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_turkish_ci | utf8mb4 | 233 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci | utf8mb4 | 246 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_unicode_ci | utf8mb4 | 224 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_vietnamese_ci | utf8mb4 | 247 | | Yes | 8 | PAD SPACE |
| utf8mb4_vi_0900_ai_ci | utf8mb4 | 277 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_vi_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 300 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
| utf8mb4_zh_0900_as_cs | utf8mb4 | 308 | | Yes | 0 | NO PAD |
+----------------------------+---------+-----+---------+----------+---------+---------------+
For more information about those collations, see Section 12.10.1, “Unicode Character Sets”.
Collations have these general characteristics:
Two different character sets cannot have the same collation.
Each character set has a default
collation. For example, the default collations for
utf8mb4 and latin1 are
utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci and
latin1_swedish_ci, respectively. The
INFORMATION_SCHEMA
CHARACTER_SETS table and the
SHOW CHARACTER SET statement
indicate the default collation for each character set. The
INFORMATION_SCHEMA
COLLATIONS table and the
SHOW COLLATION statement have a
column that indicates for each collation whether it is the
default for its character set (Yes if so,
empty if not).
Collation names start with the name of the character set with which they are associated, generally followed by one or more suffixes indicating other collation characteristics. For additional information about naming conventions, see Section 12.3.1, “Collation Naming Conventions”.
When a character set has multiple collations, it might not be clear which collation is most suitable for a given application. To avoid choosing an inappropriate collation, perform some comparisons with representative data values to make sure that a given collation sorts values the way you expect.