一、查看 MySQL 数据库服务器和数据库字符集。

mysql> show variables like '%char%';
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------+------
| Variable_name??????????? | Value?????????????????????????????? |......
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------+------
| character_set_client???? | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......?? -- 客户端字符集
| character_set_connection | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......
| character_set_database?? | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......?? -- 数据库字符集
| character_set_filesystem | binary????????????????????????????? |......
| character_set_results??? | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......
| character_set_server???? | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......?? -- 服务器字符集
| character_set_system???? | utf8??????????????????????????????? |......
| character_sets_dir?????? | D:\MySQL Server 5.0\share\charsets\ |......
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------+------
二、查看 MySQL 数据表（table） 的字符集。

mysql> show table status from sqlstudy_db like '%countries%';
+-----------+--------+---------+------------+------+-----------------+------
| Name????? | Engine | Version | Row_format | Rows | Collation?????? |......
+-----------+--------+---------+------------+------+-----------------+------
| countries | InnoDB |????? 10 | Compact??? |?? 11 | utf8_general_ci |......
+-----------+--------+---------+------------+------+-----------------+------
三、查看 MySQL 数据列（column）的字符集。

mysql> show full columns from countries;
+----------------------+-------------+-----------------+--------
| Field??????????????? | Type??????? | Collation?????? | .......
+----------------------+-------------+-----------------+--------
| countries_id???????? | int(11)???? | NULL??????????? | .......
| countries_name?????? | varchar(64) | utf8_general_ci | .......
| countries_iso_code_2 | char(2)???? | utf8_general_ci | .......
| countries_iso_code_3 | char(3)???? | utf8_general_ci | .......
| address_format_id??? | int(11)???? | NULL??????????? | .......
+----------------------+-------------+-----------------+--------
四、查看当前安装的 MySQL 所支持的字符集。

mysql> show charset;
mysql> show char set;
+----------+-----------------------------+---------------------+--------+
| Charset | Description???????????????? | Default collation?? | Maxlen |
+----------+-----------------------------+---------------------+--------+
| big5???? | Big5 Traditional Chinese??? | big5_chinese_ci???? |????? 2 |
| dec8???? | DEC West European?????????? | dec8_swedish_ci???? |????? 1 |
| cp850??? | DOS West European?????????? | cp850_general_ci??? |????? 1 |
| hp8????? | HP West European??????????? | hp8_english_ci????? |????? 1 |
| koi8r??? | KOI8-R Relcom Russian?????? | koi8r_general_ci??? |????? 1 |
| latin1?? | cp1252 West European??????? | latin1_swedish_ci?? |????? 1 |
| latin2?? | ISO 8859-2 Central European | latin2_general_ci?? |????? 1 |
| swe7???? | 7bit Swedish??????????????? | swe7_swedish_ci???? |????? 1 |
| ascii??? | US ASCII??????????????????? | ascii_general_ci??? |??