Standard SQL defines NCHAR or NATIONAL CHAR as a way to indicate that a CHAR column should use some predefined character set. MySQL uses utf8 as this predefined character set. For example, these data type declarations are equivalent:

CHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8 NATIONAL CHARACTER(10) NCHAR(10)

As are these:

VARCHAR(10) CHARACTER SET utf8 NATIONAL VARCHAR(10) NVARCHAR(10) NCHAR VARCHAR(10) NATIONAL CHARACTER VARYING(10) NATIONAL CHAR VARYING(10)

You can use N'literal' (or n'literal') to create a string in the national character set. These statements are equivalent:

SELECT N'some text'; SELECT n'some text'; SELECT _utf8'some text';