CREATE DATABASE  my_db;

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS my_db;

CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS my_db default character set utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

show databases;

use my_db;

show variables like 'character_set_%'

+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name            | Value                                                 |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client     | utf8                                                  |
| character_set_connection | utf8                                                  |
| character_set_database   | latin1                                                |
| character_set_filesystem | binary                                                |
| character_set_results    | utf8                                                  |
| character_set_server     | latin1                                                |
| character_set_system     | utf8                                                  |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/local/mysql-5.5.28-linux2.6-i686/share/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+

alter database my_db character set latin1;

drop database my_db;

drop database IF EXISTS my_db;