4.2 The INFORMATION_SCHEMA CHARACTER_SETS Table

The CHARACTER_SETS table provides information about available character sets.

The CHARACTER_SETS table has these columns:

• CHARACTER_SET_NAME

  The character set name.

• DEFAULT_COLLATE_NAME

  The default collation for the character set.

• DESCRIPTION

  A description of the character set.

• MAXLEN

  The maximum number of bytes required to store one character.

Notes

Character set information is also available from the SHOW CHARACTER SET statement. See SHOW CHARACTER SET Statement. The following statements are equivalent:

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CHARACTER_SETS
  [WHERE CHARACTER_SET_NAME LIKE 'wild']
SHOW CHARACTER SET
  [LIKE 'wild']