MySQL has many operators and functions that return a string. This section answers the question: What is the character set and collation of such a string?

For simple functions that take string input and return a string result as output, the output's character set and collation are the same as those of the principal input value. For example, UPPER(X) returns a string with the same character string and collation as X. The same applies for INSTR(), LCASE(), LOWER(), LTRIM(), MID(), REPEAT(), REPLACE(), REVERSE(), RIGHT(), RPAD(), RTRIM(), SOUNDEX(), SUBSTRING(), TRIM(), UCASE(), and UPPER().

If a string input or function result is a binary string, the string has the binary character set and collation. This can be checked by using the CHARSET() and COLLATION() functions, both of which return binary for a binary string argument:

mysql> SELECT CHARSET(BINARY 'a'), COLLATION(BINARY 'a');
+---------------------+-----------------------+
| CHARSET(BINARY 'a') | COLLATION(BINARY 'a') |
+---------------------+-----------------------+
| binary              | binary                |
+---------------------+-----------------------+

For operations that combine multiple string inputs and return a single string output, the “aggregation rules” of standard SQL apply for determining the collation of the result:

For example, with CASE ... WHEN a THEN b WHEN b THEN c COLLATE X END, the resulting collation is X. The same applies for UNION, ||, CONCAT(), ELT(), GREATEST(), IF(), and LEAST().

For operations that convert to character data, the character set and collation of the strings that result from the operations are defined by the character_set_connection and collation_connection system variables that determine the default connection character set and collation (see Section 10.4, “Connection Character Sets and Collations”). This applies only to BIN_TO_UUID(), CAST(), CONV(), FORMAT(), HEX(), and SPACE().

An exception to the preceding priniciple occurs for expressions for virtual generated columns. In such expressions, the table character set is used for BIN_TO_UUID(), CONV(), or HEX() results, regardless of connection character set.

If there is any question about the character set or collation of the result returned by a string function, use the CHARSET() or COLLATION() function to find out:

mysql> SELECT USER(), CHARSET(USER()), COLLATION(USER());
+----------------+-----------------+-------------------+
| USER()         | CHARSET(USER()) | COLLATION(USER()) |
+----------------+-----------------+-------------------+
| test@localhost | utf8            | utf8_general_ci   |
+----------------+-----------------+-------------------+
mysql> SELECT CHARSET(COMPRESS('abc')), COLLATION(COMPRESS('abc'));
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| CHARSET(COMPRESS('abc')) | COLLATION(COMPRESS('abc')) |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| binary                   | binary                     |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+