>When you create a table, you can specify a character set for a column. How
>can you tell what character set was used when the column was created?

SHOW CREATE TABLE. If no character set is shown for the column,
it uses the table default character set.

Example:

mysql> create table t (c1 char(5) character set utf8, c2 char(5));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.16 sec)

mysql> show create table t\G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
Table: t
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `t` (
`c1` char(5) CHARACTER SET utf8 DEFAULT NULL,
`c2` char(5) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

The definition for c1 shows that utf8 is used

The definition for c2 shows nothing, so the table character set (latin1)
is used.

--
Paul DuBois, MySQL Documentation Team
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
MySQL AB, www.mysql.com