对于有大量表的数据库，你可以使用一个简单的php脚本来更新数据库和所有表的字符集，使用以下方法:

$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $username, $password, $database);

if ($conn->connect_error) {
  die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

$alter_database_charset_sql = "ALTER DATABASE ".$database." CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci";
mysqli_query($conn, $alter_database_charset_sql);

$show_tables_result = mysqli_query($conn, "SHOW TABLES");
$tables  = mysqli_fetch_all($show_tables_result);

foreach ($tables as $index => $table) {
  $alter_table_sql = "ALTER TABLE ".$table[0]." CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8  COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci";
  $alter_table_result = mysqli_query($conn, $alter_table_sql);
  echo "<pre>";
  var_dump($alter_table_result);
  echo "</pre>";
}

最安全的方法是先将列修改为二进制类型，然后使用所需的字符集将其修改回二进制类型。

每种列类型都有其各自的二进制类型，如下所示:

>二进制 文本=> BLOB 丁文字=> TINYBLOB 文本=> memblob LONGTEXT => LONGBLOB VARCHAR => VARBINARY

Eg.:

ALTER TABLE [TABLE_SCHEMA].[TABLE_NAME] MODIFY [COLUMN_NAME] VARBINARY;

ALTER TABLE [TABLE_SCHEMA].[TABLE_NAME] MODIFY [COLUMN_NAME] VARCHAR(140) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4;

我尝试了几个拉丁表，它保留了所有的变音符。

你可以为所有列提取这个查询:

SELECT
CONCAT('ALTER TABLE ', TABLE_SCHEMA,'.', TABLE_NAME,' MODIFY ', COLUMN_NAME,' VARBINARY;'),
CONCAT('ALTER TABLE ', TABLE_SCHEMA,'.', TABLE_NAME,' MODIFY ', COLUMN_NAME,' ', COLUMN_TYPE,' CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;')
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA IN ('[TABLE_SCHEMA]')
AND COLUMN_TYPE LIKE 'varchar%'
AND (COLLATION_NAME IS NOT NULL AND COLLATION_NAME NOT LIKE 'utf%');

在所有列上执行此操作后，再对所有表执行此操作:

ALTER TABLE [TABLE_SCHEMA].[TABLE_NAME] CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;

要为你所有的表生成这个查询，使用下面的查询:

SELECT
CONCAT('ALTER TABLE ', TABLE_SCHEMA, '.', TABLE_NAME, ' CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;')
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
WHERE TABLE_COLLATION NOT LIKE 'utf8%'
and TABLE_SCHEMA in ('[TABLE_SCHEMA]');

现在你修改了所有的列和表，在数据库上做同样的事情:

ALTER DATABASE [DATA_BASE_NAME] CHARSET = utf8mb4 COLLATE = utf8mb4_general_ci;

使用ALTER DATABASE和ALTER TABLE命令。

ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

或者如果你仍然使用MySQL 5.5.2或更早的版本，不支持4字节UTF-8，使用utf8而不是utf8mb4:

ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

Make a backup! Then you need to set the default char sets on the database. This does not convert existing tables, it only sets the default for newly created tables. ALTER DATABASE dbname CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci; Then, you will need to convert the char set on all existing tables and their columns. This assumes that your current data is actually in the current char set. If your columns are set to one char set but your data is really stored in another then you will need to check the MySQL manual on how to handle this. ALTER TABLE tbl_name CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

utf8到utf8mb4:

1.显示所有数据库默认字符集:

SELECT SCHEMA_NAME 'YOUR_DATABASE_NAME', 
default_character_set_name 'charset', 
DEFAULT_COLLATION_NAME 'collation' 
FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA;

2.显示所有表的状态(字符集)，关注列的“collation”:

use YOUR_DATABASE_NAME;    
SHOW TABLE STATUS ;

3.生成转换sql: 转换数据库和所有表utf8mb4,utf8mb4_unicode_ci

USE information_schema;
SELECT CONCAT("ALTER DATABASE `",table_schema,"` CHARACTER SET = utf8mb4 COLLATE = utf8mb4_unicode_ci;") AS _sql
FROM `TABLES` WHERE table_schema LIKE "YOUR_DATABASE_NAME" AND TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' GROUP BY table_schema UNION
SELECT CONCAT("ALTER TABLE `",table_schema,"`.`",table_name,"` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;") AS _sql  
FROM `TABLES` WHERE table_schema LIKE "YOUR_DATABASE_NAME" AND TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' GROUP BY table_schema, TABLE_NAME 
/*include all columns, commonly don't need this.*/
/*
UNION
SELECT CONCAT("ALTER TABLE `",`COLUMNS`.table_schema,"`.`",`COLUMNS`.table_name, "` CHANGE `",column_name,"` `",column_name,"` ",data_type,"(",character_maximum_length,") CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci",IF(is_nullable="YES"," NULL"," NOT NULL"),";") AS _sql 
FROM `COLUMNS` INNER JOIN `TABLES` ON `TABLES`.table_name = `COLUMNS`.table_name WHERE `COLUMNS`.table_schema like "YOUR_DATABASE_NAME" and data_type in ('varchar','char') AND TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' UNION
SELECT CONCAT("ALTER TABLE `",`COLUMNS`.table_schema,"`.`",`COLUMNS`.table_name, "` CHANGE `",column_name,"` `",column_name,"` ",data_type," CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci",IF(is_nullable="YES"," NULL"," NOT NULL"),";") AS _sql 
FROM `COLUMNS` INNER JOIN `TABLES` ON `TABLES`.table_name = `COLUMNS`.table_name WHERE `COLUMNS`.table_schema like "YOUR_DATABASE_NAME" and data_type in ('text','tinytext','mediumtext','longtext') AND TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE';
*/

4.运行生成的SQL语句。

5.刷新数据库。

6.检查:

SHOW TABLE STATUS ;

在命令行shell上

如果你是一个命令行shell，你可以非常快地做到这一点。只需填写“dbname”:D

DB="dbname"
(
    echo 'ALTER DATABASE `'"$DB"'` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;'
    mysql "$DB" -e "SHOW TABLES" --batch --skip-column-names \
    | xargs -I{} echo 'ALTER TABLE `'{}'` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;'
) \
| mysql "$DB"

简单复制/粘贴的一行程序

DB="dbname"; ( echo 'ALTER DATABASE `'"$DB"'` CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;'; mysql "$DB" -e "SHOW TABLES" --batch --skip-column-names | xargs -I{} echo 'ALTER TABLE `'{}'` CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;' ) | mysql "$DB"