Re: set names 'utf8'

[Shuichi Tamagawa]

danielmcbrearty

As is often the case, I guess your program is using default mysql client library, which is compiled with latin1 character set.

In that case, even if you enter valid utf8 values, the client interpretes the values as latin1. Then tell the server 'Hey, these values are encoded in latin1'. When the values are stored in the table, MySQL thinks 'Oh, the values passed from the client is latin1 but the table is utf8. I have to convert it!' That's why the values becomes non-utf8.

By executing "set names utf8", it sets the client character set variables to utf8. So the values sent from the client program are stored 'as is' in the table because the client character set and the table's character set is the same.

This is FAQ. I think this behavior and workaround should be documented somewhere in the manual. Or client library compiled with different character sets should be downloadable.