MySQL 5.5 - How to change MySQL default character-set to UTF8

1. First Connect to the mysql usting "mysql" command.
2. Run the below script to check the current installed character set.                                                    

     
   show variables like “collation_database”;
    
   +--------------------+-------------------+
   | Variable_name      | Value             |
   +--------------------+-------------------+
   | collation_database | latin1_swedish_ci |
   +--------------------+-------------------+
   
   show variables like "%character%"; show variables like "%collation%";
   
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   | Variable_name            | Value                      |
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   | character_set_client     | utf8                       |
   | character_set_connection | utf8                       |
   | character_set_database   | latin1                     |
   | character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
   | character_set_results    | utf8                       |
   | character_set_server     | latin1                     |
   | character_set_system     | utf8                       |
   | character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   8 rows in set (0.12 sec)
   
   +----------------------+-------------------+
   | Variable_name        | Value             |
   +----------------------+-------------------+
   | collation_connection | utf8_general_ci   |
   | collation_database   | latin1_swedish_ci |
   | collation_server     | latin1_swedish_ci |
   +----------------------+-------------------+
   3 rows in set (0.00 sec)
   
   

3.  Add below variables in my.cnf which is in the /etc/mysql directory

[mysqld]
init_connect='SET collation_connection = utf8_unicode_ci'
init_connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server=utf8
collation-server=utf8_unicode_ci
skip-character-set-client-handshake

4. Restart the MySQL
   sudo /etc/init.d/mysql stop
   sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

5. Re-run the above SQL statements which is define in the step 2. You will see the char set have been changed to utf8 as below

   +--------------------+-----------------+
   | Variable_name      | Value           |
   +--------------------+-----------------+
   | collation_database | utf8_unicode_ci |
   +--------------------+-----------------+
   1 row in set (0.00 sec)
   
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   | Variable_name            | Value                      |
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   | character_set_client     | utf8                       |
   | character_set_connection | utf8                       |
   | character_set_database   | utf8                       |
   | character_set_filesystem | binary                     |
   | character_set_results    | utf8                       |
   | character_set_server     | utf8                       |
   | character_set_system     | utf8                       |
   | character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
   +--------------------------+----------------------------+
   8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
   
   +----------------------+-----------------+
   | Variable_name        | Value           |
   +----------------------+-----------------+
   | collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
   | collation_database   | utf8_unicode_ci |
   | collation_server     | utf8_unicode_ci |
   +----------------------+-----------------+
   3 rows in set (0.00 sec)