The COLLATIONS table provides information about collations for each character set.
mysql>
mysql> desc INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS;
+--------------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| COLLATION_NAME | varchar(64) | NO | | | |
| CHARACTER_SET_NAME | varchar(64) | NO | | | |
| ID | bigint(11) | NO | | 0 | |
| IS_DEFAULT | varchar(3) | NO | | | |
| IS_COMPILED | varchar(3) | NO | | | |
| SORTLEN | bigint(3) | NO | | 0 | |
+--------------------+-------------+------+-----+---------+-------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
The following statements are equivalent:
SELECT COLLATION_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLLATIONS
[WHERE collation_name LIKE 'wild']
SHOW COLLATION
[LIKE 'wild']