Creating mysql table with explicit default character set, what if I don't?

Question

In mysql 5.x Whats the difference if I do something like this:

CREATE TABLE aTable (
    id                       BIGINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
            


        

Answer 1

The word DEFAULT is optional there - so the two are equivalent, i.e. they set the default character set for the table.

See the MySQL documentation for CREATE TABLE. Here's the relevant bit:

table_option:
    ENGINE [=] engine_name
  ... other options ...
  | [DEFAULT] CHARACTER SET [=] charset_name
  ... more options ...

You can confirm this using the SHOW CREATE TABLE command.