Table-level character sets and collations

Every table in OceanBase Database is created with a default character set and collation.

Specify the character set and collation of a table

You can execute the CREATE TABLE statement to specify the character set and collation of a table by using the following syntax:

CREATE TABLE table_name (column_list)
    [[DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET charset_name]
    [COLLATE collation_name]]

Select the character set and collation of a table

You can select the character set and collation of a table by using the following methods in OceanBase Database:

• If you specify both the CHARACTER SET charset_name and COLLATE collation_name parameters, the charset_name character set and collation_name collation are used.

• If you specify only the CHARACTER SET charset_name parameter, the specifiedcharset_namecharacter set and the associated default collation are used. To view the default collation for each character set, execute the SHOW CHARACTER SET` statement.

• If you specify only the COLLATE collation_name parameter, the specified collation_name collation and the associated character set are used.

• If neither CHARACTER SET nor COLLATE is specified, the character set and collation for the server are used.

If the column-level character set and collation are not specified in the definition of each column, the table-level character set and collation are used by default.