> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://mariadb.com/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://mariadb.com/docs/server/reference/sql-statements/administrative-sql-statements/set-commands/set-character-set.md).

# SET CHARACTER SET

## Syntax

```bnf
SET {CHARACTER SET | CHARSET}
    {charset_name | DEFAULT}
```

## Description

Sets the [character\_set\_client](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#character_set_client) and [character\_set\_results](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#character_set_results) session system variables to the specified character set and [collation\_connection](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#collation_connection) to the value of [collation\_database](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#collation_database), which implicitly sets [character\_set\_connection](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#character_set_connection) to the value of [character\_set\_database](/docs/server/server-management/variables-and-modes/server-system-variables.md#character_set_database).

This maps all strings sent between the current client and the server with the given mapping.

## Example

```sql
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set\_%';
+--------------------------+--------+
| Variable_name            | Value  |
+--------------------------+--------+
| character_set_client     | utf8   |
| character_set_connection | utf8   |
| character_set_database   | latin1 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results    | utf8   |
| character_set_server     | latin1 |
| character_set_system     | utf8   |
+--------------------------+--------+

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
+----------------------+-------------------+
| Variable_name        | Value             |
+----------------------+-------------------+
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci   |
| collation_database   | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
+----------------------+-------------------+

SET CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set\_%';
+--------------------------+---------+
| Variable_name            | Value   |
+--------------------------+---------+
| character_set_client     | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_connection | latin1  |
| character_set_database   | latin1  |
| character_set_filesystem | binary  |
| character_set_results    | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_server     | latin1  |
| character_set_system     | utf8    |
+--------------------------+---------+

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';
+----------------------+-------------------+
| Variable_name        | Value             |
+----------------------+-------------------+
| collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_database   | latin1_swedish_ci |
| collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
+----------------------+-------------------+
```

## See Also

* [Setting Character Sets and Collations](/docs/server/reference/data-types/string-data-types/character-sets/setting-character-sets-and-collations.md)
* [SET NAMES](/docs/server/reference/sql-statements/administrative-sql-statements/set-commands/set-names.md)

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