MySQL: How to change default Character set to UTF-8

In the previous post, I discussed and provided the small note on Database Character Set and Collation.
In this post, I am showing how you can configure or change default Character Set in MySQL?

Sometimes, it requires changing the default character set of MySQL Server or MySQL Database.
A Character set “latin1” and Collation “latin1_swedish_ci” are the default of MySQL Server.

This is a standard configuration, and you do not need to change anything, but if your application requires storing data using a different character set, you have to change this default configuration.

Here, I am showing how to change your default character set and collation to UTF-8.

MySQL Server provides, different three ways to configure character set and collation.

• Configure Character set and Collation at Database Level.
• Configure Character set and Collation at Server Startup.
• Configure Character set and Collation during MySQL Server Installation and Configuration.

First, check your default Character Set and Collation of MySQL Server.

1 2	SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'chara%'; SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation%';

If you want to change the default to UTF-8, you want to add the following to my.cnf (MySQL Configuration File).

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[client] default-character-set=utf8   [mysql] default-character-set=utf8   [mysqld] collation-server = utf8_unicode_ci init-connect='SET NAMES utf8' character-set-server = utf8

Specify Character Settings per Database:

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CREATE DATABASE MyDatabase DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_general_ci;