Creating a UTF-8 database

			
CREATE DATABASE db_name DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
			
			

Create a UTF-8 database with binary UTF-8 collation.

			
CREATE DATABASE dbname CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin;
			
			

			
DROP DATABASE db_name;
			
			

			
ALTER DATABASE dbname DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
			
			

			
RENAME {DATABASE | SCHEMA} db_name TO new_db_name;
			
			

before 5.0 version

			
[neo@development ~]$ mysqldump -uroot -pchen db_old | mysql -uroot -pchen db_new
			
			

			
ALTER DATABASE <database_name> CHARACTER SET utf8;
			
			

			
mysql> show create database dbname;
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Database | Create Database                                                   |
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| dbname   | CREATE DATABASE `dbname` /*!40100 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 */   |
+----------+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)