How do I find out the default server character set in MySQL?

You can use system variables character_set_server to know the default server character set in MySQL. Following is the syntax −

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set_server';

Additionally, to u can use collation_server system variable to know the default collation in MySQL. Following is the syntax −

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation_server';

Let us execute the above syntaxes to know the default character set and collation.

Following is the query −

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set_server';

This will produce the following output −

+----------------------+-------+
| Variable_name        | Value |
+----------------------+-------+
| character_set_server | utf8  |
+----------------------+-------+
1 row in set (0.25 sec)

Following is the query to know collation −

mysql> SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'collation_server';

This will produce the following output −

+------------------+-----------------+
| Variable_name    | Value           |
+------------------+-----------------+
| collation_server | utf8_unicode_ci |
+------------------+-----------------+
1 row in set (0.01 sec)