The MySQL Server has a server character set and a server collation, which may not be null.
MySQL determines the server character set and server collation thus:
At the server level, the decision is simple. The server character set and collation depend initially on the options that you use when you start mysqld. You can use --default-character-set for the character set, and along with it you can add --default-collation for the collation. If you don’t specify a character set, that is the same as saying --default-character-set=latin1. If you specify only a character set (for example, latin1) but not a collation, that is the same as saying --default-charset=latin1 --default-collation=latin1_swedish_ci because latin1_swedish_ci is the default collation for latin1. Therefore, the following three commands all have the same effect:
shell> mysqld
shell> mysqld --default-character-set=latin1
shell> mysqld --default-character-set=latin1 \
–default-collation=latin1_swedish_ci
One way to change the settings is by recompiling. If you want to change the default server character set and collation when building from sources, use: --with-charset and --with-collation as arguments for configure. For example:
shell> ./configure --with-charset=latin1
Or:
shell> ./configure --with-charset=latin1 \
–with-collation=latin1_german1_ci
Both mysqld and configure verify that the character set/collation combination is valid. If not, each program displays an error message and terminates.
The current server character set and collation are available as the values of the character_set_server and collation_server system variables. These variables can be changed at runtime.
Import sql from command line with character set
i imported data from mysql 4.0 to mysql 4.1.9
i set the server characterset and the client to be the same
[mysqld]
default-character-set=hebrew
default-collation=hebrew_general_ci
c:\mysql\bin\mysql.exe -uroot -pMyPassword --default-character-set=hebrew -Dmydb < c:\data.sql
for more info you can go here :- http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/charset-defaults.html