13.7.4 SET Statements

The SET statement has several forms. Descriptions for those forms that are not associated with a specific server capability appear in subsections of this section:

SET var_name = value enables you to assign values to variables that affect the operation of the server or clients. See Section 13.7.4.1, “SET Syntax for Variable Assignment”.
SET CHARACTER SET and SET NAMES assign values to character set and collation variables associated with the current connection to the server. See Section 13.7.4.2, “SET CHARACTER SET Statement”, and Section 13.7.4.3, “SET NAMES Statement”.

Descriptions for the other forms appear elsewhere, grouped with other statements related to the capability they help implement:

SET PASSWORD assigns account passwords. See Section 13.7.1.7, “SET PASSWORD Statement”.
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL sets the isolation level for transaction processing. See Section 13.3.6, “SET TRANSACTION Statement”.