10.3.7 Predefined character set

Official document address: 10.3.7 The National Character Set

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Standard SQL definition NCHARor NATIONAL CHARused to indicate that a CHARcolumn should use some predefined character set. MySQL uses utf8as this predefined character set. For example, these data type declarations are equivalent:

CHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8
NATIONAL CHARACTER(10)
NCHAR(10)

These are also:

VARCHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8
NATIONAL VARCHAR(10)
NVARCHAR(10)
NCHAR VARCHAR(10)
NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING(10)
NATIONAL CHAR VARYING(10)

You can use N'literal'(or n'literal') to create a string of a predefined character set. These statements are equivalent:

SELECT N'some text';
SELECT n'some text';
SELECT _utf8'some text';