[mysql] How to change collation of database, table, column?

The following query will generate ALTER queries that change the collation for all appropriate columns in all tables to a certain type (utf8_general_ci in my example below).

SELECT concat
        (
            'ALTER TABLE ', 
                t1.TABLE_SCHEMA, 
                '.', 
                t1.table_name, 
                ' MODIFY ', 
                t1.column_name, 
                ' ', 
                t1.data_type, 
                '(' , 
                    CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH, 
                ')', 
                ' CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;'
        )
from 
    information_schema.columns t1
where 
    t1.TABLE_SCHEMA like 'you_db_name_goes_here' AND
    t1.COLLATION_NAME IS NOT NULL AND
    t1.COLLATION_NAME NOT IN ('utf8_general_ci');