SET NAMES {'charset_name'
[COLLATE 'collation_name'] | DEFAULT}
This statement sets the three session system variables
character_set_client,
character_set_connection, and
character_set_results to the
given character set. Setting
character_set_connection to
charset_name also sets
collation_connection to the
default collation for charset_name. See
Section 10.1.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”.
The optional COLLATE clause may be used to
specify a collation explicitly. If given, the collation must one
of the permitted collations for
charset_name.
The default mapping can be restored by using a value of
DEFAULT. The default depends on the server
configuration.
ucs2, utf16, and
utf32 cannot be used as a client character
set, which means that they do not work for
SET NAMES.