Character sets 

The character set of the database 

New installations on MySQL or MariaDB use the utf8mb4 character set. This character set can store UTF-8 characters (including emojis). The length of a text field is based on the number of characters rather than the number of bytes, for example, a varchar(10) field can store ten Chinese characters, even though each character is three bytes long.

Some older installations may still use the utf8 character set, which MySQL calls utf8mb3. It stores characters of up to three bytes only, so it cannot store emojis and some rare Chinese characters. To store them, convert the database to utf8mb4.

New installations on MySQL or MariaDB use the utf8mb4 character set. This character set can store the entire UTF-8 character repertoire, including emojis. The length of a text field is defined by the number of characters rather than the number of bytes; for example, a :sql:varchar(10) field can store ten Chinese characters, even though each character requires three bytes of storage. Some older installations may still use the utf8 character set, which MySQL refers to as utf8mb3. Because it only stores characters up to three bytes long, it cannot support emojis or certain rare Chinese characters. To enable full character support, convert the database to utf8mb4.