# CHARSET

Takes a string argument and returns the character set of that argument.

## Syntax

```sql
CHARSET(string)
```

## Arguments

* String

## Return Type

* Character set

## Examples

```sql
SELECT CHARSET(char(189));

```

```output

+--------------------+
| CHARSET(char(189)) |
+--------------------+
| binary             |
+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.06 sec)

```

```sql
SELECT CHARSET(char(189 using utf8));

```

```output

+-------------------------------+
| CHARSET(char(189 using utf8)) |
+-------------------------------+
| utf8                          |
+-------------------------------+
1 row in set (0.06 sec)
```

## Related Topics

* [CHAR](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/char.md)

> **⚠️ Warning**: ## Implicit CollationWhen `character_set_server` is set to `utf8`, string literals with characters using 4-byte encoding are implicitly assigned binary collation and processed as a sequence of bytes rather than characters. This implicit conversion to binary collation causes string functions to return unexpected results. To avoid using implicit binary collation, either use explicit type casting or use database columns defined with the `utf8mb4` character set. For more information, refer to [Implicit Collation in Special Cases](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/character-encoding/special-cases.md).

***

Modified at: February 27, 2023

Source: [/cloud/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/charset/](https://docs.singlestore.com/cloud/reference/sql-reference/string-functions/charset/)

(An index of the documentation is available at /llms.txt)