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Jonathan Söder
5,771 PointsNot have to specify Charset in connection? PHP and MYSQL
Hi!
I've got a minor problem that's really annoying me.
I've set database, table and my php file to UTF-8.
If I echo swedish characters they show up in the browser. Fine.
However if I retrieve swedish characters from the database they show up as "?".
AKA something's wrong with the decoding.
When I specify charset with mysqli_set_charset() in my connection snippet characters decode properly.
It's been a while since I coded but I'm pretty sure I never had to specify a charset in my connection before.
If the same charset is set everywhere, you shouldn't have to specify the charset in the connection, right? Does anyone have any hunch of what's going on here?
So:
everything works fine with mysqli_set_charset.
Without function, the info fetched from db displays special chars as "?".
DB, Table & phpfile set to UTF-8.
simple php echo's displays special chars fine.
Why is function needed when everything's set to same charset?
1 Answer
Andrew Winkler
37,739 PointsI've never run into such an error before, but I did understand what you were asking. I found the answer on a stack overflow thread.
Call
mysql_set_charset("utf8");
After connecting and before making any queries.
Your database charset is just for storage, not for transmission between app and database.