MariaDB errors using utf8mb4 - mysql

Question

I am trying to create a database using the utf8mb4 character set and utf8mb4_unicode_ci collation. However, I don't seem to be able to insert unicode characters into my tables.
What I have done:
SET NAMES utf8mb4;
CREATE DATABASE mydb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
USE mydb;
CREATE TABLE test (val VARCHAR(16));
INSERT INTO test (val) VALUES ("á");
ERROR 1366 (22007): Incorrect string value: '\xA0' for column `mydb`.`test`.`val` at row 1
If I don't use SET NAMES utf8mb4;, then I can insert the "á" character without issue.
These are my default character set variables:
show variables like 'char%'; show variables like 'collation%';
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client | cp850 |
| character_set_connection | cp850 |
| character_set_database | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | cp850 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.5\share\charsets\ |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.000 sec)
+----------------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+----------------------+--------------------+
| collation_connection | cp850_general_ci |
| collation_database | utf8mb4_unicode_ci |
| collation_server | utf8_general_ci |
+----------------------+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.000 sec)
And after using SET NAMES:
show variables like 'char%'; show variables like 'collation%';
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_connection | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_database | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8mb4 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | C:\Program Files\MariaDB 10.5\share\charsets\ |
+--------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.000 sec)
+----------------------+--------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+----------------------+--------------------+
| collation_connection | utf8mb4_general_ci |
| collation_database | utf8mb4_unicode_ci |
| collation_server | utf8_general_ci |
+----------------------+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.000 sec)
How can I fix this issue so I can insert characters in the utf8mb4 character set?

Answer 1

Your text (or .sql) file itself is encoded in cp850 and not in utf-8.
You can see that encoded value is a single byte - UTF-8 encoding should be at least 2 bytes.
In order to use SET NAMES utf8mb4; command, your file needs to be converted to utf-8. Some advanced editors allow that, and even windows notepad can save a text file as utf-8 in modern versions.

Answer 2

If you are using Windows cmd, the command "chcp" controls the "code page". chcp 65001 provides utf8, but it needs a special charset installed, too.
To set the font in the console window: Right-click on the title of the window → Properties → Font → pick Lucida Console