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phpmysqliutf-8character-encodingcyrillic
phpnewbie2015
phpnewbie2015

Reputation: 376

PHP <==> MySQL; storing Cyrillic / Scandinavian characters in the database

There are so many threads dedicated to this topic, that I feel silly having to ask this.

But, I'm at a total loss as to what the problem could be.

I am trying to insert special characters (cyrillic, scandinavian, etc) into a MySQL database, via PHP (html) form.

Characters like : Ä,Ö,Å, as well as russian alphabets, etc.

Based on previous threads in this forum, I have tried all the following (inserted right after the MySQL database-connection string) :

    mysqli->set_charset("utf8");

This didn't work, so I tried the following :

    mysqli_query("set names 'utf8'");
    mysqli_query("set charset 'utf8'");

These are not recommended by PHP. But, I tried them anyway, but still no luck.

(All my databases, tables, and columns are collated as : UTF8_general_ci)

In addition, all my html forms have the following :

  <meta charset="utf-8">

So, I'm at a complete loss as to what I'm doing wrong. Once the data is sent to the database, it shows up (in the database itself) as rubbish characters (question marks, and other hieroglyphics).

However, the funny thing is :

(a) When I view the data on my website, it displays correctly;

(b) When the data is sent within the body of an email, it also displays correctly

So..........why is it not displaying correctly within the database itself ??

Upvotes: 3

Views: 3580

Answers (2)

Qirel
Qirel

Reputation: 26490

When dealing with specific charset (like UTF-8), it's important that the entire line of code is set to the same charset. Below are a few pointers how to follow this.

  • ALL attributes must be set to ut8 (collation is NOT the same as charset in the database)
  • You should save the document itself as UTF-8 (If you're using Notepad++, it's Format -> Convert to UFT-8 (or UTF-8 w/o BOM), there's a difference - both or either may work for you)
  • The header in both PHP and HTML should be set to UTF-8:
    • HTML: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
    • PHP: header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
  • Upon connecting to the databse, set the charset ti UTF-8, like this:
    $connection->set_charset("utf8"); (directly after connecting)

  • Also make sure your database and tables are set to UTF-8, you can do that by this query (in the database, need only be done once):

    ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;
    ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

Remember that EVERYTHING needs to be set to UFT-8 charcode. If something can be set to UFT-8 (or another charset, check the PHP-docs (php.net)), it should be set to the same charset as everything else.

Upvotes: 5

webdeb
webdeb

Reputation: 13211

(a) When I view the data on my website, it displays correctly;

(b) When the data is sent within the body of an email, it also displays correctly

This means data is correctly stored in the db, when you get the output is the same like the input, logically correct?

The other question is: How are you looking into the database, which kind of client are you using?

PHPMyAdmin, SomeDesktop Client.. The problem will be there.. because the data is stored right.. seems so ;)

Upvotes: 0

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