What be the default connection char-set used in MySQL if not given by client

Question

The current variables of MySQL 5.5 is

 show variables like "%char%";
+--------------------------+----------------------------+
| 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 (0.00 sec)

If a client connect to this DB, without specifying charset using such as SET NAMES LATIN1, what charset it would use?

Answer 1

character_set_database this will be the default assuming you didn't mention character set while creating the original database.

• http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-options.html#option_mysqld_character-set-server

Update from Comment conversation:
The connection charset for the client will use value of character_set_client. In this specific case utf8.

Ofcourse this affects only how the client handles strings.