As far as I know, MySQL Server does not have any charset
command either. You specify the charset with SET NAMES, which is a short-cut to set several related variables (all of which can be set with the SET
command anyway).
You're probably confused with the command of the official command-line client:
mysql> \h
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List of all MySQL commands:
Note that all text commands must be first on line and end with ';'
? (\?) Synonym for `help'.
clear (\c) Clear the current input statement.
connect () Reconnect to the server. Optional arguments are db and host.
delimiter (\d) Set statement delimiter.
ego (\G) Send command to mysql server, display result vertically.
exit (\q) Exit mysql. Same as quit.
go (\g) Send command to mysql server.
help (\h) Display this help.
notee (\t) Don't write into outfile.
print (\p) Print current command.
prompt (\R) Change your mysql prompt.
quit (\q) Quit mysql.
rehash (\#) Rebuild completion hash.
source (\.) Execute an SQL script file. Takes a file name as an argument.
status (\s) Get status information from the server.
tee (\T) Set outfile [to_outfile]. Append everything into given outfile.
use (\u) Use another database. Takes database name as argument.
charset (\C) Switch to another charset. Might be needed for processing binlog with multi-byte charsets.
warnings (\W) Show warnings after every statement.
nowarning (\w) Don't show warnings after every statement.
Since you are using PHP, not the command-line client, it doesn't exist.
Of course, the mysqli way to set the encoding is mysqli::set_charset().