mysql — The MySQL Command-Line Client MySQL command line client - Unicode . This item invokes the  mysql  client with properties set to communicate through the console to the MySQL server using Unicode. To take advantage of this support manually, run  mysql  within a console that uses a compatible Unicode font and set the default character set to a Unicode character set that is supported for communication with the server: With those changes,  mysql  uses the Windows APIs to communicate with the console using UTF-16LE, and communicate with the server using UTF-8. (The menu item mentioned previously sets the font and character set as just described.) To avoid those steps each time you run  mysql , you can create a shortcut that invokes  mysql.exe . The shortcut should set the console font to Lucida Console or some other compatible Unicode font, and pass the  --default-character-set=utf8  (or  utf8mb4 ) option to  mysql.exe . Alternatively, create a shortcut that only sets the console font, and set the character set in the  [mysql] group of your  my.ini  file: [mysql] default-character-set=utf8 Some query results are much more readable when displayed vertically, instead of in the usual horizontal table format. Queries can be displayed vertically by terminating the query with \G instead of a semicolon. For example, longer text values that include newlines often are much easier to read with vertical output: 446 Using Safe-Updates Mode (--safe-updates) Displaying Query Results Vertically 1. Open a console window. 2. Go to the console window properties, select the font tab, and choose Lucida Console or some other compatible Unicode font. This is necessary because console windows start by default using a DOS raster font that is inadequate for Unicode. 3. Execute  mysql.exe  with the  --default-character-set=utf8  (or  utf8mb4 ) option. This option is necessary because  utf16le  is one of the character sets that cannot be used as the client character set. See Impermissible Client Character Sets. mysql>  SELECT * FROM mails WHERE LENGTH(txt) < 300 LIMIT 300,1\G *************************** 1. row *************************** msg_nro: 3068 date: 2000-03-01 23:29:50 time_zone: +0200 mail_from: Jones reply: jones@example.com mail_to: "John Smith" <smith@example.com> sbj: UTF-8 txt: >>>>> "John" == John Smith writes: John> Hi. I think this is a good idea. Is anyone familiar John> with UTF-8 or Unicode? Otherwise, I’ll put this on my John> TODO list and see what happens. Yes, please do that. Regards, Jones file: inbox-jani-1 hash: 190402944 1 row in set (0.09 sec)