mysql table in utf8 but database in latin1?

[kosh]

I have a MySQL 5.0.22 database. It's delivering garbled text (the traditional latin1 vs. utf8 issue). I converted the fields in a particular table to blobs, then used "ALTER TABLE t1 CHANGE c1 c1 TEXT CHARACTER SET utf8" to convert each field to utf8. The problem? The text still appears garbled.

When I issue the status command (/s) I see this:

mysql Ver 14.12 Distrib 5.0.22, for redhat-linux-gnu (x86_64) using readline 5.0

Connection id: 441212
...
Protocol version: 10
Connection: Localhost via UNIX socket
Server characterset: latin1
Db characterset: latin1
Client characterset: latin1
Conn. characterset: latin1

My concern is that everything is still latin1. Wouldn't that force conversions of the characters in my new utf8 table? Or is it something else? And how would I configure a single table to work with utf8 while everything else remains latin1?

[aksival]

I usually use phpMyAdmin to set the database and each individual table to UTF-8. This has always confused me, especially since the default is usually Latin.

I'm not a command line buff when it comes to MySQL, but I'm guessing the command isn't correct or there is some kind or restriction preventing you from updating the database tables. Have you tried making the changes in phpMyAdmin or MySQL Administrator?