PHP/Mysql Character Sets

Question

I have a PHP/MySQL application, where it needs to work with UTF-8 characters behind-the-scenes (the UTF-8 characters won't be shown on-screen). The UTF-8 characters are from a PHP cURL request.

What do I need to do to make PHP and MySQL properly function with UTF-8 characters?

Do I need to set default_charset = utf-8 in php.ini? Or is this only used when data is displayed on-screen?
Do I need to set the character set/collation to utf8/utf8_general_ci for my databases, tables, and columns?
I read that there's also a such thing as connection character sets for MySQL. Does this really matter?
Is there anything else I need to do?

Thanks for the help.

I can't really test with foreign characters yet, I'm just preparing. — Hope4You
– Hope4You, Commented Aug 25, 2012 at 18:41
For internal processing, mb_internal_encoding can be useful. Also, you might want to do a SET NAMES 'utf8'; query on the database, right after you fetch any results. — ACJ
– ACJ, Commented Aug 25, 2012 at 18:50

martinstoeckli · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-25 19:30:09Z

1

Consider to use UTF-8 for everything, the php files, the HTML encoding and the database, it will save you a lot of troubles. You won't need to convert between encodings, you can use all possible characters of all encodings, and you can do without HTML entities.

I collected some tips of how to make your site UTF-8 only. Should you already have a database in a different encoding, that's no problem, just tell the connection object to deliver UTF-8.

$db = new mysqli($dbHost, $dbUser, $dbPassword, $dbName);
$db->set_charset('utf8');

answered Aug 25, 2012 at 19:30

martinstoeckli

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2 Comments

Hope4You Over a year ago

That helps. Is it enough to declare my database to be utf8, or do the tables and columns need to be set to utf8 also?

martinstoeckli Over a year ago

@Hope4You - It's enough to set the charset to the connection object, no need to change anything in the database itself. Even if different tables should have different encodings, the connection object would deliver UTF-8 to your php script.

Amar Gharat · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-25 18:45:15Z

0

You can use following php in-built functions to iso characters to utf8 charset

utf8_encode(CHARACTERS);

answered Aug 25, 2012 at 18:45

Amar Gharat

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