mysql.createPool charset doesn't work

I’m using node mysql to connect to database and I have the following createPool setup

const db = mysql.createPool({
    host: process.env.host,
    user: process.env.username,
    password: process.env.password,
    database: process.env.database,
    multipleStatements: true,
    charset: 'UTF8MB4_GENERAL_CI'
});

Now if I use `SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ‘character_set%’ in phpmyadmin database page I get

character_set_client	utf8mb4	
character_set_connection	utf8mb4	
character_set_database	utf8	
character_set_filesystem	binary	
character_set_results	utf8mb4	
character_set_server	latin2	
character_set_system	utf8	
character_sets_dir	/usr/share/mysql/charsets/	

On the other hand, if I use same query in node server db.query("SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%'", ...) it returns

[
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_client',
    Value: 'latin2'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_connection',
    Value: 'latin2'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_database',
    Value: 'utf8'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_filesystem',
    Value: 'binary'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_results',
    Value: 'latin2'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_server',
    Value: 'latin2'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_set_system',
    Value: 'utf8'
  },
  RowDataPacket {
    Variable_name: 'character_sets_dir',
    Value: '/usr/share/mysql/charsets/'
  }
]

And I’d expect them to be something related to charset I’ve set in createPool function. The issue here is that special characters returned by my database turn to � and I looked for solutions but none of them seem to work and I’m starting to think this is the issue.

Also if I use query db.query("SET character_set_client = 'utf8';" + "SET character_set_connection = 'utf8';" + "SET character_set_results = 'utf8';" + "SET character_set_server = 'utf8';" + "SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character_set%';", ...) it returns what I’d expect

[
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_client',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_connection',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_database',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_filesystem',
      Value: 'binary'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_results',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_server',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_set_system',
      Value: 'utf8'
    },
    RowDataPacket {
      Variable_name: 'character_sets_dir',
      Value: '/usr/share/mysql/charsets/'
    }
  ]

And also if used as multipleStatements in front of select query I’m using to get text from database, db.query("TONS OF SET VARIABLES HERE;" + "SELECT STUFF", ...) the special characters don’t turn to � anymore and it works as I think it should.

What am I missing? Why does createPool charset not affect my character_set variables? I also tried utf8, UTF8, utf8mb4, UTF8MB4 as charset.

[dougwilson]

You can use the connection pool event to run SET queries on all your pool connections: https://github.com/mysqljs/mysql#connection

[asasinmode]

Thanks a lot for detailed answer. It indeed looks like the issue is with my database hosting, so I’ll go ahead and ask them about it.