In MariaDB, CHARSET() is a secondary built in function that returns the character set of a given string.

We provide the string when we call the function.

Syntax

The syntax goes like this:

CHARSET(str)

Where str is the string.

Example

Here’s a simple example:

SELECT CHARSET('Toast');

Result:

+------------------+
| CHARSET('Toast') |
+------------------+
| utf8             |
+------------------+

And here it is again after we convert the same string to utf16:

SELECT CHARSET(CONVERT('Toast' USING utf16));

Result:

+---------------------------------------+
| CHARSET(CONVERT('Toast' USING utf16)) |
+---------------------------------------+
| utf16                                 |
+---------------------------------------+

And here’s another example that uses Thai characters:

SELECT CHARSET(_tis620'ไม้เมือง');

Result:

+--------------------------------------------+
| CHARSET(_tis620'ไม้เมือง')                   |
+--------------------------------------------+
| tis620                                     |
+--------------------------------------------+

Wrong Argument Type

Passing an argument that is not a string results in the word binary being returned.

SELECT CHARSET(123);

Result:

+--------------+
| CHARSET(123) |
+--------------+
| binary       |
+--------------+

Null Arguments

Passing null results in the word binary being returned.

SELECT CHARSET(null);

Result:

+---------------+
| CHARSET(null) |
+---------------+
| binary        |
+---------------+

Missing Argument

Calling CHARSET() without passing an argument results in an error:

SELECT CHARSET();

Result:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near ')' at line 1