Re: Character set differs in reality

[Rick James]

mysql> show GLOBAL variables like 'character%';
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                                         |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                                          |
| character_set_connection | utf8                                          |
| character_set_database   | utf8                                          |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                                        |
| character_set_results    | utf8                                          |
| character_set_server     | utf8                                          |
| character_set_system     | utf8                                          |
| character_sets_dir       | ... |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

mysql> show SESSION variables like 'character%';
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                                         |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client     | latin1                                        |
| character_set_connection | latin1                                        |
| character_set_database   | utf8                                          |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                                        |
| character_set_results    | latin1                                        |
| character_set_server     | utf8                                          |
| character_set_system     | utf8                                          |
| character_sets_dir       | ... |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

Another way you could be seeing different values: You may have
init_connect = 'SET NAMES utf8'
in your my.cnf (my.ini). if so, be advised that 'root', and any other user from <tt>GRANT ALL ON *.*</tt>, has "SUPER" privilege, will skip the <tt>init_connect</tt>.