what is a collation and why is my default "latin1_swedish_ci" ?

[sneakyimp]

i imported this table into mysql using PHPMYADMIN:

CREATE TABLE `migPerson` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `first_name` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `last_name` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `born_on` date default NULL,
  `contact_info_id` int(11) default NULL,
  `headshot` text,
  `last_contacted_on` date default NULL,
  `removed_on` datetime default '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
  `delete_row` int(1) default '0',
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`),
  KEY `person_name` (`last_name`,`first_name`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

when i view the imported table's structure in phpMyAdmin, the 'Collation' column lists 'latin1_swedish_ci' for all the varchar and text fields.

What does this mean? Can I change it? Should I change it??

[Roger_Ramjet]

Read the manual: Character Sets and Collation

[MarkR]

latin1 is the character set, which is an 8 bit character set which includes the characters used in many European languages.

The collation "latin1_swedish_ci" is for comparing and ordering strings - it is suitable for Swedish and most other European languages. It is case insensitive (that's what the _ci bit is about).

Generally speaking, for all new applications, you should consider using utf8 instead - but you must be totally aware of all the issues it creates and how you can solve them. Make sure your encodings are totally consistent throughout your application.

Mark