How to correctly insert utf-8 characters into a MySQL table using python

Question

I am extremely confused and puzzled by how I store strings with unusual characters (to someone who is used to dealing with a UK English character set) in them.

Here is my example.

I have this name: Bientôt l'été

This is how I created my table:

CREATE TABLE MyTable(
    'my_id' INT(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
    'my_name' TEXT CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY(`my_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Using this simplified python script I am trying to insert the string into a MySQL database and table:

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import MySQLdb

mystring = "Bientôt l'été"

myinsert = [ { "name" : mystring.encode("utf-8").strip()[:65535], "id" : 1 } ]

con = None
con = MySQLdb.connect('localhost', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi');
cur = con.cursor()
sql = "INSERT INTO 'MyTable' ( 'my_id', 'my_name' ) VALUES ( %(id)s, %(name)s ) ; "
cur.executemany( sql, myinsert )
con.commit()
if con: con.close()

If I then try to read the name in the database it is stored as: Bientôt l'été

I want it to read: Bientôt l'été

How do I get the python script/MySQL database to do this? I think this is something to do with the character set and how it is set but I can't find a simple web page that explains this without any technical jargon. I've been struggling with this for hours!

I have looked at this and I see character_set_server is set as latin1 but I don't know if this is the problem or how to change it:

mysql> show variables like 'char%';
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| 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     | latin1                     |
| character_set_system     | utf8                       |
| character_sets_dir       | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
+--------------------------+----------------------------+

Answer 1

Did you try, this query set names utf8;

#!/usr/bin/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import MySQLdb

mystring = "Bientôt l'été"

myinsert = [{ "name": mystring.encode("utf-8").strip()[:65535], "id": 1 }]

con = MySQLdb.connect('localhost', 'abc', 'def', 'ghi');
cur = con.cursor()

cur.execute("set names utf8;")     # <--- add this line,

sql = "INSERT INTO 'MyTable' ( 'my_id', 'my_name' ) VALUES ( %(id)s, %(name)s ) ; "
cur.executemany( sql, myinsert )
con.commit()
if con: con.close()