20.9. The INFORMATION_SCHEMA CHARACTER_SETS Table

The CHARACTER_SETS table provides information about available character sets.

INFORMATION_SCHEMA NameSHOW NameRemarks
CHARACTER_SET_NAMECharset 
DEFAULT_COLLATE_NAMEDefault collation 
DESCRIPIONDescriptionMySQL extension
MAXLENMaxlenMySQL extension

The following statements are equivalent: 

SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.CHARACTER_SETS
  [WHERE name LIKE 'wild']

SHOW CHARACTER SET
  [LIKE 'wild']