How do I see what character set a MySQL database / table / column is?

Question

What is the (default) charset for:

• MySQL database

• MySQL table

• MySQL column

Answer 1

SELECT TABLE_SCHEMA,
       TABLE_NAME,
       CCSA.CHARACTER_SET_NAME AS DEFAULT_CHAR_SET,
       COLUMN_NAME,
       COLUMN_TYPE,
       C.CHARACTER_SET_NAME
  FROM information_schema.TABLES AS T
  JOIN information_schema.COLUMNS AS C USING (TABLE_SCHEMA, TABLE_NAME)
  JOIN information_schema.COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY AS CCSA
       ON (T.TABLE_COLLATION = CCSA.COLLATION_NAME)
 WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA=SCHEMA()
   AND C.DATA_TYPE IN ('enum', 'varchar', 'char', 'text', 'mediumtext', 'longtext')
 ORDER BY TABLE_SCHEMA,
          TABLE_NAME,
          COLUMN_NAME
;