PHP - U+FFFD Unicode � error instead of the char

Question

I have tested my website on localhost but once uploaded i see that in the
address is not displayed correctly. The address contains the following errror:

 37 Gr�ce Ave

instead of

37 Grâce Ave,

Here there is the beginning of my html page:

<html lang="en-ca">

<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport">

On localhost the address $address='37 Grâce Ave,' is displayed correctly. I have a lot of addresses with these special chars, how can i fix this error?

Please read "Something in my web site or project doesn't work. Can I just paste a link to it?" as well as How to Ask and edit your post. — Nick
– Nick, Commented Feb 5, 2024 at 5:41
@daniele add the output of var_dump(bin2hex($address)); to your question. — hanshenrik
– hanshenrik, Commented Feb 5, 2024 at 20:38

shingo · Accepted Answer · 2024-02-06 05:29:02Z

2

Save your php file using UTF-8 encoding again, or change the charset to latin-1 (or the one you are currently using) in the head.

To convert a string from one encoding to UTF-8, you can use functions like iconv or mb_convert_encoding.

$address = iconv('encoding-of-the-column', 'utf-8', $address);

Explanation: Your current file (or the string) should have been saved using one of the european encoding, the value of â is greater than 0x7F, in UTF-8 encoding a single character greater than 0x7F is invalid, so it's displayed as an error character.

edited Feb 6, 2024 at 5:29

answered Feb 5, 2024 at 7:42

shingo

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4 Comments

daniele Over a year ago

the value of the address is not static but it is stored in mysql for each field. How can i solve saving my php file using UTF-8 encoding?

hanshenrik Over a year ago

latin-1 is an educated guess right? until i see the bin2hex($address), i'm not sure what charset OP is using, but it's a charset issue yes

shingo Over a year ago

@daniele You need to first know what encoding is used in the DB, then you can use functions like iconv or mb_convert_encoding to convert it.

shingo Over a year ago

@hanshenrik Yes, it's a guess, based on lang="en-ca", it is most likely.

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