Charset

utf8mb4 has become the default character set.
utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci as the default collation in MySQL 8.0.1 and later.

recommended:
• utf8mb4_0900_*
• utf8mb4_bin

do not use:
• utf8_*
• utf8mb3
• utf8mb4_general_ci
• utf8mb4_unicode_ci
• utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci

External Links

• https://mariadb.com/kb/en/character-sets/
• https://dev.mysql.com/blog-archive/?cat=Character%20Sets
• https://www.monolune.com/articles/mysql-utf8-charsets-and-collations-explained/
• https://www.monolune.com/articles/what-is-the-utf8mb4_0900_ai_ci-collation/