<div id="docs-body">
 <div class="section">
  <div class="titlepage">
   <div>
    <div>
     <h2 class="title">
      <a name="charset-charsets">
      </a>
      12.10 Supported Character Sets and Collations
     </h2>
    </div>
   </div>
  </div>
  <div class="toc">
   <dl class="toc">
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-unicode-sets.html">
       12.10.1 Unicode Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-we-sets.html">
       12.10.2 West European Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-ce-sets.html">
       12.10.3 Central European Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-se-me-sets.html">
       12.10.4 South European and Middle East Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-baltic-sets.html">
       12.10.5 Baltic Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-cyrillic-sets.html">
       12.10.6 Cyrillic Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-asian-sets.html">
       12.10.7 Asian Character Sets
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
    <dt>
     <span class="section">
      <a href="charset-binary-set.html">
       12.10.8 The Binary Character Set
      </a>
     </span>
    </dt>
   </dl>
  </div>
  <p>
   This section indicates which character sets MySQL supports. There
      is one subsection for each group of related character sets. For
      each character set, the permissible collations are listed.
  </p>
  <p>
   To list the available character sets and their default collations,
      use the
   <a class="link" href="show-character-set.html" title="15.7.7.4 SHOW CHARACTER SET Statement">
    <code class="literal">
     SHOW CHARACTER SET
    </code>
   </a>
   statement or query the
   <code class="literal">
    INFORMATION_SCHEMA
   </code>
   <a class="link" href="information-schema-character-sets-table.html" title="28.3.4 The INFORMATION_SCHEMA CHARACTER_SETS Table">
    <code class="literal">
     CHARACTER_SETS
    </code>
   </a>
   table. For example:
  </p>
  <div class="copytoclipboard-wrapper">
   <pre class="programlisting language-sql"><div class="docs-select-all right" id="sa10655964"><div class="copy-help left">Press ⌘+C to copy</div> <div class="right"><button class="clipboard-btn" title="Copy to Clipboard"><span class="icon-clipboard"></span></button></div></div><code class="language-sql"><span class="token prompt">mysql&gt;</span> <span class="token keyword">SHOW</span> <span class="token keyword">CHARACTER</span> <span class="token keyword">SET</span><span class="token punctuation">;</span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> Charset  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Description                     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Default collation   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Maxlen <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> armscii8 <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ARMSCII<span class="token punctuation">-</span>8 Armenian              <span class="token punctuation">|</span> armscii8_general_ci <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> ascii    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> US ASCII                        <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ascii_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> big5     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Big5 Traditional Chinese        <span class="token punctuation">|</span> big5_chinese_ci     <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> binary   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Binary pseudo charset           <span class="token punctuation">|</span> binary              <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1250   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Windows Central European        <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1250_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1251   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Windows Cyrillic                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1251_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1256   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Windows Arabic                  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1256_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1257   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Windows Baltic                  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1257_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp850    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> DOS West European               <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp850_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp852    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> DOS Central European            <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp852_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp866    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> DOS Russian                     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp866_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp932    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> SJIS for Windows Japanese       <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp932_japanese_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> dec8     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> DEC West European               <span class="token punctuation">|</span> dec8_swedish_ci     <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> eucjpms  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UJIS for Windows Japanese       <span class="token punctuation">|</span> eucjpms_japanese_ci <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      3 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> euckr    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> EUC<span class="token punctuation">-</span>KR Korean                   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> euckr_korean_ci     <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> gb18030  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> China National Standard GB18030 <span class="token punctuation">|</span> gb18030_chinese_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      4 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> gb2312   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> GB2312 Simplified Chinese       <span class="token punctuation">|</span> gb2312_chinese_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> gbk      <span class="token punctuation">|</span> GBK Simplified Chinese          <span class="token punctuation">|</span> gbk_chinese_ci      <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> geostd8  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> GEOSTD8 Georgian                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> geostd8_general_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> greek    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ISO 8859<span class="token punctuation">-</span>7 Greek                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> greek_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> hebrew   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ISO 8859<span class="token punctuation">-</span>8 Hebrew               <span class="token punctuation">|</span> hebrew_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> hp8      <span class="token punctuation">|</span> HP West European                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> hp8_english_ci      <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> keybcs2  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> DOS Kamenicky Czech<span class="token punctuation">-</span>Slovak      <span class="token punctuation">|</span> keybcs2_general_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> koi8r    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> KOI8<span class="token punctuation">-</span>R Relcom Russian           <span class="token punctuation">|</span> koi8r_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> koi8u    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> KOI8<span class="token punctuation">-</span>U Ukrainian                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> koi8u_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin1   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> cp1252 West European            <span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin1_swedish_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin2   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ISO 8859<span class="token punctuation">-</span>2 Central European     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin2_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin5   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ISO 8859<span class="token punctuation">-</span>9 Turkish              <span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin5_turkish_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin7   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ISO 8859<span class="token punctuation">-</span>13 Baltic              <span class="token punctuation">|</span> latin7_general_ci   <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> macce    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Mac Central European            <span class="token punctuation">|</span> macce_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> macroman <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Mac West European               <span class="token punctuation">|</span> macroman_general_ci <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> sjis     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> Shift<span class="token punctuation">-</span>JIS Japanese              <span class="token punctuation">|</span> sjis_japanese_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> swe7     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> 7bit Swedish                    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> swe7_swedish_ci     <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> tis620   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> TIS620 Thai                     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> tis620_thai_ci      <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      1 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> ucs2     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UCS<span class="token punctuation">-</span>2 Unicode                   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ucs2_general_ci     <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      2 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> ujis     <span class="token punctuation">|</span> EUC<span class="token punctuation">-</span>JP Japanese                 <span class="token punctuation">|</span> ujis_japanese_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      3 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf16    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UTF<span class="token punctuation">-</span>16 Unicode                  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf16_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      4 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf16le  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UTF<span class="token punctuation">-</span>16LE Unicode                <span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf16le_general_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      4 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf32    <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UTF<span class="token punctuation">-</span>32 Unicode                  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf32_general_ci    <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      4 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf8mb3  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UTF<span class="token punctuation">-</span>8 Unicode                   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf8mb3_general_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      3 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf8mb4  <span class="token punctuation">|</span> UTF<span class="token punctuation">-</span>8 Unicode                   <span class="token punctuation">|</span> utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci  <span class="token punctuation">|</span>      4 <span class="token punctuation">|</span></span>
<span class="token output"><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">-</span><span class="token punctuation">+</span></span></code></pre>
  </div>
  <p>
   In cases where a character set has multiple collations, it might
      not be clear which collation is most suitable for a given
      application. To avoid choosing the wrong collation, it can be
      helpful to perform some comparisons with representative data
      values to make sure that a given collation sorts values the way
      you expect.
  </p>
 </div>
 <br/>
</div>
