UTF-8 all the way through

1050

I'm setting up a new server and want to support UTF-8 fully in my web application. I have tried this in the past on existing servers and always seem to end up having to fall back to ISO-8859-1.

Where exactly do I need to set the encoding/charsets? I'm aware that I need to configure Apache, MySQL, and PHP to do this — is there some standard checklist I can follow, or perhaps troubleshoot where the mismatches occur?

This is for a new Linux server, running MySQL 5, PHP, 5 and Apache 2.

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

8

Here is an overview about all encoding faults you can possibly make: sebastianviereck.de/en/…

– Sebastian Viereck
Jan 27 '13 at 10:29

12

Here's an introduction to encodings in general and encodings in PHP in particular: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text

– deceze♦
Jul 9 '13 at 19:33

Some recent discussions about PHP 7 indicate that there are no changes in the "officially abandoned" position of 2010... There are something more about "PHP7 and UTF-8"?

– Peter Krauss
Sep 23 '15 at 6:02

This problem is common. But there is no shortcut solution, you will have to setup utf-8 for each of them seprately - MySQL 5, PHP 5 OR Apache 2.

– Manish Shrivastava
Jan 18 '17 at 14:00

add a comment |

1050

I'm setting up a new server and want to support UTF-8 fully in my web application. I have tried this in the past on existing servers and always seem to end up having to fall back to ISO-8859-1.

This is for a new Linux server, running MySQL 5, PHP, 5 and Apache 2.

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

8

Here is an overview about all encoding faults you can possibly make: sebastianviereck.de/en/…

– Sebastian Viereck
Jan 27 '13 at 10:29

12

Here's an introduction to encodings in general and encodings in PHP in particular: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text

– deceze♦
Jul 9 '13 at 19:33

Some recent discussions about PHP 7 indicate that there are no changes in the "officially abandoned" position of 2010... There are something more about "PHP7 and UTF-8"?

– Peter Krauss
Sep 23 '15 at 6:02

This problem is common. But there is no shortcut solution, you will have to setup utf-8 for each of them seprately - MySQL 5, PHP 5 OR Apache 2.

– Manish Shrivastava
Jan 18 '17 at 14:00

add a comment |

1050

427

I'm setting up a new server and want to support UTF-8 fully in my web application. I have tried this in the past on existing servers and always seem to end up having to fall back to ISO-8859-1.

This is for a new Linux server, running MySQL 5, PHP, 5 and Apache 2.

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

I'm setting up a new server and want to support UTF-8 fully in my web application. I have tried this in the past on existing servers and always seem to end up having to fall back to ISO-8859-1.

This is for a new Linux server, running MySQL 5, PHP, 5 and Apache 2.

php mysql linux apache utf-8

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

edited Jan 9 at 20:48

Matthias Braun

13.3k976110

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

asked Nov 10 '08 at 21:04

mercutio

12k93136

8

Here is an overview about all encoding faults you can possibly make: sebastianviereck.de/en/…

– Sebastian Viereck
Jan 27 '13 at 10:29

12

Here's an introduction to encodings in general and encodings in PHP in particular: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text

– deceze♦
Jul 9 '13 at 19:33

Some recent discussions about PHP 7 indicate that there are no changes in the "officially abandoned" position of 2010... There are something more about "PHP7 and UTF-8"?

– Peter Krauss
Sep 23 '15 at 6:02

This problem is common. But there is no shortcut solution, you will have to setup utf-8 for each of them seprately - MySQL 5, PHP 5 OR Apache 2.

– Manish Shrivastava
Jan 18 '17 at 14:00

add a comment |

8

Here is an overview about all encoding faults you can possibly make: sebastianviereck.de/en/…

– Sebastian Viereck
Jan 27 '13 at 10:29

12

Here's an introduction to encodings in general and encodings in PHP in particular: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text

– deceze♦
Jul 9 '13 at 19:33

Some recent discussions about PHP 7 indicate that there are no changes in the "officially abandoned" position of 2010... There are something more about "PHP7 and UTF-8"?

– Peter Krauss
Sep 23 '15 at 6:02

This problem is common. But there is no shortcut solution, you will have to setup utf-8 for each of them seprately - MySQL 5, PHP 5 OR Apache 2.

– Manish Shrivastava
Jan 18 '17 at 14:00

Here is an overview about all encoding faults you can possibly make: sebastianviereck.de/en/…

– Sebastian Viereck
Jan 27 '13 at 10:29

Here's an introduction to encodings in general and encodings in PHP in particular: What Every Programmer Absolutely, Positively Needs To Know About Encodings And Character Sets To Work With Text

– deceze♦
Jul 9 '13 at 19:33

Some recent discussions about PHP 7 indicate that there are no changes in the "officially abandoned" position of 2010... There are something more about "PHP7 and UTF-8"?

– Peter Krauss
Sep 23 '15 at 6:02

This problem is common. But there is no shortcut solution, you will have to setup utf-8 for each of them seprately - MySQL 5, PHP 5 OR Apache 2.

– Manish Shrivastava
Jan 18 '17 at 14:00

add a comment |

13 Answers
13

active

oldest

votes

913

Data Storage:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8. Note that MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit character set).

In older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3), you'll unfortunately be forced to use simply utf8, which only supports a subset of Unicode characters. I wish I were kidding.

Data Access:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the connection charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off to your application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both updates its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection—this is usually the preferred approach. In PHP:
- If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:
```
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');
```
- If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():
```
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8mb4');       // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8mb4');  // procedural style
```
- If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

If the driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set, you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above.

Output:

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character encoding. With web applications, the browser must be informed of the encoding in which data is sent (through HTTP response headers or HTML metadata).

In PHP, you can use the default_charset php.ini option, or manually issue the Content-Type MIME header yourself, which is just more work but has the same effect.

Input:

Unfortunately, you should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it anywhere. PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it religiously. There's really no way around this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want, and I haven't found a trick to get PHP to do this for you reliably.

From my reading of the current HTML spec, the following sub-bullets are not necessary or even valid anymore for modern HTML. My understanding is that browsers will work with and submit data in the character set specified for the document. However, if you're targeting older versions of HTML (XHTML, HTML4, etc.), these points may still be useful:
- For HTML before HTML5 only: you want all data sent to you by browsers to be in UTF-8. Unfortunately, if you go by the the only way to reliably do this is add the accept-charset attribute to all your <form> tags: <form ... accept-charset="UTF-8">.
- For HTML before HTML5 only: note that the W3C HTML spec says that clients "should" default to sending forms back to the server in whatever charset the server served, but this is apparently only a recommendation, hence the need for being explicit on every single <form> tag.

Other Code Considerations:

Obviously enough, all files you'll be serving (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) should be encoded in valid UTF-8.

You need to make sure that every time you process a UTF-8 string, you do so safely. This is, unfortunately, the hard part. You'll probably want to make extensive use of PHP's mbstring extension.

PHP's built-in string operations are not by default UTF-8 safe. There are some things you can safely do with normal PHP string operations (like concatenation), but for most things you should use the equivalent mbstring function.

To know what you're doing (read: not mess it up), you really need to know UTF-8 and how it works on the lowest possible level. Check out any of the links from utf8.com for some good resources to learn everything you need to know.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

4

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

47

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

6

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

89

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

4

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

|
show 11 more comments

138

I'd like to add one thing to chazomaticus' excellent answer:

Don't forget the META tag either (like this, or the HTML4 or XHTML version of it):

<meta charset="utf-8">

That seems trivial, but IE7 has given me problems with that before.

I was doing everything right; the database, database connection and Content-Type HTTP header were all set to UTF-8, and it worked fine in all other browsers, but Internet Explorer still insisted on using the "Western European" encoding.

It turned out the page was missing the META tag. Adding that solved the problem.

Edit:

The W3C actually has a rather large section dedicated to I18N. They have a number of articles related to this issue – describing the HTTP, (X)HTML and CSS side of things:

FAQ: Changing (X)HTML page encoding to UTF-8

Declaring character encodings in HTML

Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, HTML and CSS

Setting the HTTP charset parameter

They recommend using both the HTTP header and HTML meta tag (or XML declaration in case of XHTML served as XML).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

2

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

5

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

add a comment |

In addition to setting default_charset in php.ini, you can send the correct charset using header() from within your code, before any output:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

Working with Unicode in PHP is easy as long as you realize that most of the string functions don't work with Unicode, and some might mangle strings completely. PHP considers "characters" to be 1 byte long. Sometimes this is okay (for example, explode() only looks for a byte sequence and uses it as a separator -- so it doesn't matter what actual characters you look for). But other times, when the function is actually designed to work on characters, PHP has no idea that your text has multi-byte characters that are found with Unicode.

A good library to check into is phputf8. This rewrites all of the "bad" functions so you can safely work on UTF8 strings. There are extensions like the mbstring extension that try to do this for you, too, but I prefer using the library because it's more portable (but I write mass-market products, so that's important for me). But phputf8 can use mbstring behind the scenes, anyway, to increase performance.

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

add a comment |

Old topic, I know. Found an issue with someone using PDO and the answer was to use this for the PDO Connection string:

$pdo = new PDO(

    'mysql:host=mysql.example.com;dbname=example_db',

    "username",

    "password",

    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));

The site I took this from is down, was able to get it using google cache luckily.

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

add a comment |

In my case, I was using mb_split, which uses regex. Therefore I also had to manually make sure the regex encoding was utf-8 by doing mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

As a side note, I also discovered by running mb_internal_encoding() that the internal encoding wasn't utf-8, and I changed that by running mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");.

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

add a comment |

First of all if you are in < 5.3PHP then no. You've got a ton of problems to tackle.

I am surprised that none has mentioned the intl library, the one that has good support for unicode, graphemes, string operations , localisation and many more, see below.

I will quote some information about unicode support in PHP by Elizabeth Smith's slides at PHPBenelux'14

INTL

Good:

Wrapper around ICU library

Standardised locales, set locale per script

Number formatting

Currency formatting

Message formatting (replaces gettext)

Calendars, dates, timezone and time

Transliterator

Spoofchecker

Resource bundles

Convertors

IDN support

Graphemes

Collation

Iterators

Bad:

Does not support zend_multibite

Does not support HTTP input output conversion

Does not support function overloading

mb_string

Enables zend_multibyte support

Supports transparent HTTP in/out encoding

Provides some wrappers for funtionallity such as strtoupper

ICONV

Primary for charset conversion

Output buffer handler

mime encoding functionality

conversion

some string helpers (len, substr, strpos, strrpos)

Stream Filter stream_filter_append($fp, 'convert.iconv.ISO-2022-JP/EUC-JP')

DATABASES

mysql: Charset and collation on tables and on connection (not the collation). Also don't use mysql - msqli or PDO

postgresql: pg_set_client_encoding

sqlite(3): Make sure it was compiled with unicode and intl support

Some other Gotchas

You cannot use unicode filenames with PHP and windows unless you use a 3rd part extension.

Send everything in ASCII if you are using exec, proc_open and other command line calls

Plain text is not plain text, files have encodings

You can convert files on the fly with the iconv filter

I ll update this answer in case things change features added and so on.

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

2

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

add a comment |

I recently discovered that using strtolower() can cause issues where the data is truncated after a special character.

The solution was to use

mb_strtolower($string, 'UTF-8');

mb_ uses MultiByte. It supports more characters but in general is a little slower.

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

add a comment |

The only thing I would add to these amazing answers is to emphasize on saving your files in utf8 encoding, i have noticed that browsers accept this property over setting utf8 as your code encoding. Any decent text editor will show you this, for example Notepad++ has a menu option for file enconding, it shows you the current encoding and enables you to change it. For all my php files I use utf8 without BOM.

Sometime ago i had someone ask me to add utf8 support for a php/mysql application designed by someone else, i noticed that all files were encoded in ANSI, so I had to use ICONV to convert all files, change the database tables to use the utf8 charset and utf8_general_ci collate, add 'SET NAMES utf8' to the database abstraction layer after the connection (if using 5.3.6 or earlier otherwise you have to use charset=utf8 in the connection string) and change string functions to use the php multibyte string functions equivalent.

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

add a comment |

In PHP, you'll need to either use the multibyte functions, or turn on mbstring.func_overload. That way things like strlen will work if you have characters that take more than one byte.

You'll also need to identify the character set of your responses. You can either use AddDefaultCharset, as above, or write PHP code that returns the header. (Or you can add a META tag to your HTML documents.)

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

4

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

add a comment |

I have just went through the same issue and found a good solution at PHP manuals.

I changed all my file encoding to UTF8 then the default encoding on my connection. This solved all the problems.

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {

    printf("Error loading character set utf8: %sn", $mysqli->error);

} else {

   printf("Current character set: %sn", $mysqli->character_set_name());

}

View Source

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

2

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

add a comment |

Unicode support in PHP is still a huge mess. While it's capable of converting an ISO8859 string (which it uses internally) to utf8, it lacks the capability to work with unicode strings natively, which means all the string processing functions will mangle and corrupt your strings. So you have to either use a separate library for proper utf8 support, or rewrite all the string handling functions yourself.

The easy part is just specifying the charset in HTTP headers and in the database and such, but none of that matters if your PHP code doesn't output valid UTF8. That's the hard part, and PHP gives you virtually no help there. (I think PHP6 is supposed to fix the worst of this, but that's still a while away)

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

add a comment |

The top answer is excellent. Here is what I had to on a regular debian/php/mysql setup:

// storage

// debian. apparently already utf-8



// retrieval

// the mysql database was stored in utf-8, 

// but apparently php was requesting iso. this worked: 

// ***notice "utf8", without dash, this is a mysql encoding***

mysql_set_charset('utf8');



// delivery

// php.ini did not have a default charset, 

// (it was commented out, shared host) and

// no http encoding was specified in the apache headers.

// this made apache send out a utf-8 header

// (and perhaps made php actually send out utf-8)

// ***notice "utf-8", with dash, this is a php encoding***

ini_set('default_charset','utf-8');



// submission

// this worked in all major browsers once apache

// was sending out the utf-8 header. i didnt add

// the accept-charset attribute.



// processing

// changed a few commands in php, like substr,

// to mb_substr

that was all !

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

add a comment |

If you want MySQL server to decide character set, and not PHP as a client (old behaviour; preferred, in my opinion), try adding skip-character-set-client-handshake to your my.cnf, under [mysqld], and restart mysql.

This may cause troubles in case you're using anything other than UTF8.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

add a comment |

protected by hjpotter92 Jan 6 '14 at 12:57

Thank you for your interest in this question.
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13 Answers
13

active

oldest

votes

13 Answers
13

active

oldest

votes

913

Data Storage:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8. Note that MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit character set).

In older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3), you'll unfortunately be forced to use simply utf8, which only supports a subset of Unicode characters. I wish I were kidding.

Data Access:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the connection charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off to your application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both updates its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection—this is usually the preferred approach. In PHP:
- If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:
```
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');
```
- If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():
```
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8mb4');       // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8mb4');  // procedural style
```
- If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

If the driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set, you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above.

Output:

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character encoding. With web applications, the browser must be informed of the encoding in which data is sent (through HTTP response headers or HTML metadata).

In PHP, you can use the default_charset php.ini option, or manually issue the Content-Type MIME header yourself, which is just more work but has the same effect.

Input:

Unfortunately, you should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it anywhere. PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it religiously. There's really no way around this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want, and I haven't found a trick to get PHP to do this for you reliably.

From my reading of the current HTML spec, the following sub-bullets are not necessary or even valid anymore for modern HTML. My understanding is that browsers will work with and submit data in the character set specified for the document. However, if you're targeting older versions of HTML (XHTML, HTML4, etc.), these points may still be useful:
- For HTML before HTML5 only: you want all data sent to you by browsers to be in UTF-8. Unfortunately, if you go by the the only way to reliably do this is add the accept-charset attribute to all your <form> tags: <form ... accept-charset="UTF-8">.
- For HTML before HTML5 only: note that the W3C HTML spec says that clients "should" default to sending forms back to the server in whatever charset the server served, but this is apparently only a recommendation, hence the need for being explicit on every single <form> tag.

Other Code Considerations:

Obviously enough, all files you'll be serving (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) should be encoded in valid UTF-8.

You need to make sure that every time you process a UTF-8 string, you do so safely. This is, unfortunately, the hard part. You'll probably want to make extensive use of PHP's mbstring extension.

PHP's built-in string operations are not by default UTF-8 safe. There are some things you can safely do with normal PHP string operations (like concatenation), but for most things you should use the equivalent mbstring function.

To know what you're doing (read: not mess it up), you really need to know UTF-8 and how it works on the lowest possible level. Check out any of the links from utf8.com for some good resources to learn everything you need to know.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

4

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

47

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

6

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

89

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

4

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

|
show 11 more comments

913

Data Storage:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8. Note that MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit character set).

In older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3), you'll unfortunately be forced to use simply utf8, which only supports a subset of Unicode characters. I wish I were kidding.

Data Access:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the connection charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off to your application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both updates its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection—this is usually the preferred approach. In PHP:
- If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:
```
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');
```
- If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():
```
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8mb4');       // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8mb4');  // procedural style
```
- If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

If the driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set, you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above.

Output:

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character encoding. With web applications, the browser must be informed of the encoding in which data is sent (through HTTP response headers or HTML metadata).

In PHP, you can use the default_charset php.ini option, or manually issue the Content-Type MIME header yourself, which is just more work but has the same effect.

Input:

Unfortunately, you should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it anywhere. PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it religiously. There's really no way around this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want, and I haven't found a trick to get PHP to do this for you reliably.

From my reading of the current HTML spec, the following sub-bullets are not necessary or even valid anymore for modern HTML. My understanding is that browsers will work with and submit data in the character set specified for the document. However, if you're targeting older versions of HTML (XHTML, HTML4, etc.), these points may still be useful:
- For HTML before HTML5 only: you want all data sent to you by browsers to be in UTF-8. Unfortunately, if you go by the the only way to reliably do this is add the accept-charset attribute to all your <form> tags: <form ... accept-charset="UTF-8">.
- For HTML before HTML5 only: note that the W3C HTML spec says that clients "should" default to sending forms back to the server in whatever charset the server served, but this is apparently only a recommendation, hence the need for being explicit on every single <form> tag.

Other Code Considerations:

Obviously enough, all files you'll be serving (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) should be encoded in valid UTF-8.

You need to make sure that every time you process a UTF-8 string, you do so safely. This is, unfortunately, the hard part. You'll probably want to make extensive use of PHP's mbstring extension.

PHP's built-in string operations are not by default UTF-8 safe. There are some things you can safely do with normal PHP string operations (like concatenation), but for most things you should use the equivalent mbstring function.

To know what you're doing (read: not mess it up), you really need to know UTF-8 and how it works on the lowest possible level. Check out any of the links from utf8.com for some good resources to learn everything you need to know.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

4

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

47

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

6

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

89

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

4

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

|
show 11 more comments

913

Data Storage:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8. Note that MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit character set).

In older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3), you'll unfortunately be forced to use simply utf8, which only supports a subset of Unicode characters. I wish I were kidding.

Data Access:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the connection charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off to your application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both updates its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection—this is usually the preferred approach. In PHP:
- If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:
```
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');
```
- If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():
```
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8mb4');       // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8mb4');  // procedural style
```
- If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

If the driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set, you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above.

Output:

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character encoding. With web applications, the browser must be informed of the encoding in which data is sent (through HTTP response headers or HTML metadata).

In PHP, you can use the default_charset php.ini option, or manually issue the Content-Type MIME header yourself, which is just more work but has the same effect.

Input:

Unfortunately, you should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it anywhere. PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it religiously. There's really no way around this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want, and I haven't found a trick to get PHP to do this for you reliably.

From my reading of the current HTML spec, the following sub-bullets are not necessary or even valid anymore for modern HTML. My understanding is that browsers will work with and submit data in the character set specified for the document. However, if you're targeting older versions of HTML (XHTML, HTML4, etc.), these points may still be useful:
- For HTML before HTML5 only: you want all data sent to you by browsers to be in UTF-8. Unfortunately, if you go by the the only way to reliably do this is add the accept-charset attribute to all your <form> tags: <form ... accept-charset="UTF-8">.
- For HTML before HTML5 only: note that the W3C HTML spec says that clients "should" default to sending forms back to the server in whatever charset the server served, but this is apparently only a recommendation, hence the need for being explicit on every single <form> tag.

Other Code Considerations:

Obviously enough, all files you'll be serving (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) should be encoded in valid UTF-8.

You need to make sure that every time you process a UTF-8 string, you do so safely. This is, unfortunately, the hard part. You'll probably want to make extensive use of PHP's mbstring extension.

PHP's built-in string operations are not by default UTF-8 safe. There are some things you can safely do with normal PHP string operations (like concatenation), but for most things you should use the equivalent mbstring function.

To know what you're doing (read: not mess it up), you really need to know UTF-8 and how it works on the lowest possible level. Check out any of the links from utf8.com for some good resources to learn everything you need to know.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

Data Storage:

Specify the utf8mb4 character set on all tables and text columns in your database. This makes MySQL physically store and retrieve values encoded natively in UTF-8. Note that MySQL will implicitly use utf8mb4 encoding if a utf8mb4_* collation is specified (without any explicit character set).

In older versions of MySQL (< 5.5.3), you'll unfortunately be forced to use simply utf8, which only supports a subset of Unicode characters. I wish I were kidding.

Data Access:

In your application code (e.g. PHP), in whatever DB access method you use, you'll need to set the connection charset to utf8mb4. This way, MySQL does no conversion from its native UTF-8 when it hands data off to your application and vice versa.

Some drivers provide their own mechanism for configuring the connection character set, which both updates its own internal state and informs MySQL of the encoding to be used on the connection—this is usually the preferred approach. In PHP:
- If you're using the PDO abstraction layer with PHP ≥ 5.3.6, you can specify charset in the DSN:
```
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:charset=utf8mb4');
```
- If you're using mysqli, you can call set_charset():
```
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8mb4');       // object oriented style

mysqli_set_charset($link, 'utf8mb4');  // procedural style
```
- If you're stuck with plain mysql but happen to be running PHP ≥ 5.2.3, you can call mysql_set_charset.

If the driver does not provide its own mechanism for setting the connection character set, you may have to issue a query to tell MySQL how your application expects data on the connection to be encoded: SET NAMES 'utf8mb4'.

The same consideration regarding utf8mb4/utf8 applies as above.

Output:

If your application transmits text to other systems, they will also need to be informed of the character encoding. With web applications, the browser must be informed of the encoding in which data is sent (through HTTP response headers or HTML metadata).

In PHP, you can use the default_charset php.ini option, or manually issue the Content-Type MIME header yourself, which is just more work but has the same effect.

Input:

Unfortunately, you should verify every received string as being valid UTF-8 before you try to store it or use it anywhere. PHP's mb_check_encoding() does the trick, but you have to use it religiously. There's really no way around this, as malicious clients can submit data in whatever encoding they want, and I haven't found a trick to get PHP to do this for you reliably.

From my reading of the current HTML spec, the following sub-bullets are not necessary or even valid anymore for modern HTML. My understanding is that browsers will work with and submit data in the character set specified for the document. However, if you're targeting older versions of HTML (XHTML, HTML4, etc.), these points may still be useful:
- For HTML before HTML5 only: you want all data sent to you by browsers to be in UTF-8. Unfortunately, if you go by the the only way to reliably do this is add the accept-charset attribute to all your <form> tags: <form ... accept-charset="UTF-8">.
- For HTML before HTML5 only: note that the W3C HTML spec says that clients "should" default to sending forms back to the server in whatever charset the server served, but this is apparently only a recommendation, hence the need for being explicit on every single <form> tag.

Other Code Considerations:

Obviously enough, all files you'll be serving (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, etc.) should be encoded in valid UTF-8.

You need to make sure that every time you process a UTF-8 string, you do so safely. This is, unfortunately, the hard part. You'll probably want to make extensive use of PHP's mbstring extension.

PHP's built-in string operations are not by default UTF-8 safe. There are some things you can safely do with normal PHP string operations (like concatenation), but for most things you should use the equivalent mbstring function.

To know what you're doing (read: not mess it up), you really need to know UTF-8 and how it works on the lowest possible level. Check out any of the links from utf8.com for some good resources to learn everything you need to know.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

edited May 23 '17 at 12:34

Community♦

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:43

chazomaticus

11.9k42530

4

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

47

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

6

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

89

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

4

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

|
show 11 more comments

4

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

47

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

6

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

89

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

4

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

It's my understanding that if you specify the collation as utf8_*, it automatically encodes as utf8 as well. Is this wrong?

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 21:49

I'm not wrong: COLLATE implies CHARACTER SET. See e.g. dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-database.html.

– chazomaticus
Nov 10 '08 at 23:01

Consider adding PDO examples for setting the character set as well.

– Ja͢ck
Oct 22 '12 at 3:35

Note that MySQL does not speak the same language as everyone else. When MySQL says "utf8" it really means "some weirdly retarded variant of UTF-8 that is limited to three bytes for god knows what ridiculous reason". If you really want UTF-8 you should tell MySQL that you want this weird thing MySQL likes to call utf8mb4. Don't bother saving on the "WTF!"s.

– R. Martinho Fernandes
Apr 9 '13 at 9:21

This answer helped me so much BUT I also found that in my case I needed to add JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to my PHP json_encode when passing the DB query results back via ajax.

– Petay87
Dec 14 '17 at 9:49

|
show 11 more comments

138

I'd like to add one thing to chazomaticus' excellent answer:

Don't forget the META tag either (like this, or the HTML4 or XHTML version of it):

<meta charset="utf-8">

That seems trivial, but IE7 has given me problems with that before.

It turned out the page was missing the META tag. Adding that solved the problem.

Edit:

The W3C actually has a rather large section dedicated to I18N. They have a number of articles related to this issue – describing the HTTP, (X)HTML and CSS side of things:

FAQ: Changing (X)HTML page encoding to UTF-8

Declaring character encodings in HTML

Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, HTML and CSS

Setting the HTTP charset parameter

They recommend using both the HTTP header and HTML meta tag (or XML declaration in case of XHTML served as XML).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

2

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

5

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

add a comment |

138

I'd like to add one thing to chazomaticus' excellent answer:

Don't forget the META tag either (like this, or the HTML4 or XHTML version of it):

<meta charset="utf-8">

That seems trivial, but IE7 has given me problems with that before.

It turned out the page was missing the META tag. Adding that solved the problem.

Edit:

The W3C actually has a rather large section dedicated to I18N. They have a number of articles related to this issue – describing the HTTP, (X)HTML and CSS side of things:

FAQ: Changing (X)HTML page encoding to UTF-8

Declaring character encodings in HTML

Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, HTML and CSS

Setting the HTTP charset parameter

They recommend using both the HTTP header and HTML meta tag (or XML declaration in case of XHTML served as XML).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

2

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

5

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

add a comment |

138

I'd like to add one thing to chazomaticus' excellent answer:

Don't forget the META tag either (like this, or the HTML4 or XHTML version of it):

<meta charset="utf-8">

That seems trivial, but IE7 has given me problems with that before.

It turned out the page was missing the META tag. Adding that solved the problem.

Edit:

The W3C actually has a rather large section dedicated to I18N. They have a number of articles related to this issue – describing the HTTP, (X)HTML and CSS side of things:

FAQ: Changing (X)HTML page encoding to UTF-8

Declaring character encodings in HTML

Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, HTML and CSS

Setting the HTTP charset parameter

They recommend using both the HTTP header and HTML meta tag (or XML declaration in case of XHTML served as XML).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

I'd like to add one thing to chazomaticus' excellent answer:

Don't forget the META tag either (like this, or the HTML4 or XHTML version of it):

<meta charset="utf-8">

That seems trivial, but IE7 has given me problems with that before.

It turned out the page was missing the META tag. Adding that solved the problem.

Edit:

The W3C actually has a rather large section dedicated to I18N. They have a number of articles related to this issue – describing the HTTP, (X)HTML and CSS side of things:

FAQ: Changing (X)HTML page encoding to UTF-8

Declaring character encodings in HTML

Tutorial: Character sets & encodings in XHTML, HTML and CSS

Setting the HTTP charset parameter

They recommend using both the HTTP header and HTML meta tag (or XML declaration in case of XHTML served as XML).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

Community♦

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

answered Nov 12 '08 at 19:27

mercator

24.6k85670

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

2

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

5

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

add a comment |

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

2

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

5

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

Shouldn't it also be possible to specify the charset in the HTTP headers? Probably needs some config option for the webserver...

– oliver
Nov 20 '08 at 17:47

@oliver: Yes you can send it in the HTTP header, but it's better to send it in the content because if the client saves the file, it'll always save the meta tag. A HTTP header is likely to just disappear unless the browser is smart enough to copy it into a meta tag in the saved file.

– user42092
Dec 2 '08 at 1:49

Also, make sure that line is the first child of head element (before any Unicode stuff). The browser may reinterpret the page after hitting that meta element described above.

– alex
Apr 20 '10 at 8:55

@mercator, hi dude, I am beginner in web development and faced the same issue, while trying to change language of formated date time I faced this issue 10 �� 2018, I am using utf-8 in an html and I was suggested to make database and browser compatible with utf-8 so I can solve my problem. Please can you help me. I hope for your attention

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

@mercator, I am using PHP Laravel

– Mirich
Sep 10 '18 at 12:48

add a comment |

In addition to setting default_charset in php.ini, you can send the correct charset using header() from within your code, before any output:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

add a comment |

In addition to setting default_charset in php.ini, you can send the correct charset using header() from within your code, before any output:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

add a comment |

In addition to setting default_charset in php.ini, you can send the correct charset using header() from within your code, before any output:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

In addition to setting default_charset in php.ini, you can send the correct charset using header() from within your code, before any output:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

edited Nov 10 '08 at 21:35

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:30

chroder

3,30212139

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

add a comment |

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

Set the overload setting in the php.ini. It helps when using multi-byte strings.

– Anthony Rutledge
Dec 21 '15 at 20:52

add a comment |

Old topic, I know. Found an issue with someone using PDO and the answer was to use this for the PDO Connection string:

$pdo = new PDO(

    'mysql:host=mysql.example.com;dbname=example_db',

    "username",

    "password",

    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));

The site I took this from is down, was able to get it using google cache luckily.

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

add a comment |

Old topic, I know. Found an issue with someone using PDO and the answer was to use this for the PDO Connection string:

$pdo = new PDO(

    'mysql:host=mysql.example.com;dbname=example_db',

    "username",

    "password",

    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));

The site I took this from is down, was able to get it using google cache luckily.

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

add a comment |

Old topic, I know. Found an issue with someone using PDO and the answer was to use this for the PDO Connection string:

$pdo = new PDO(

    'mysql:host=mysql.example.com;dbname=example_db',

    "username",

    "password",

    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));

The site I took this from is down, was able to get it using google cache luckily.

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

Old topic, I know. Found an issue with someone using PDO and the answer was to use this for the PDO Connection string:

$pdo = new PDO(

    'mysql:host=mysql.example.com;dbname=example_db',

    "username",

    "password",

    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));

The site I took this from is down, was able to get it using google cache luckily.

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

edited Jan 26 '14 at 19:02

iankit

4,55473751

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

answered Sep 11 '12 at 15:40

Brad F Jacobs

16.4k44160

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

add a comment |

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

Looking for this a bit further, this is only necessary for PHP versions prior to 5.3.6. See also: http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/2286722 (although they use a separate $dbh->exec("set names utf8");; I do prefer the method presented here). Btw. there is also a similar note on this as a comment in the PHP manual: php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#96325.

– Marten Koetsier
Aug 13 '15 at 13:55

add a comment |

In my case, I was using mb_split, which uses regex. Therefore I also had to manually make sure the regex encoding was utf-8 by doing mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

As a side note, I also discovered by running mb_internal_encoding() that the internal encoding wasn't utf-8, and I changed that by running mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");.

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

add a comment |

In my case, I was using mb_split, which uses regex. Therefore I also had to manually make sure the regex encoding was utf-8 by doing mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

As a side note, I also discovered by running mb_internal_encoding() that the internal encoding wasn't utf-8, and I changed that by running mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");.

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

add a comment |

In my case, I was using mb_split, which uses regex. Therefore I also had to manually make sure the regex encoding was utf-8 by doing mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

As a side note, I also discovered by running mb_internal_encoding() that the internal encoding wasn't utf-8, and I changed that by running mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");.

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

In my case, I was using mb_split, which uses regex. Therefore I also had to manually make sure the regex encoding was utf-8 by doing mb_regex_encoding('UTF-8');

As a side note, I also discovered by running mb_internal_encoding() that the internal encoding wasn't utf-8, and I changed that by running mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");.

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

answered Feb 23 '12 at 22:20

JDelage

4,7482063105

add a comment |

First of all if you are in < 5.3PHP then no. You've got a ton of problems to tackle.

I am surprised that none has mentioned the intl library, the one that has good support for unicode, graphemes, string operations , localisation and many more, see below.

I will quote some information about unicode support in PHP by Elizabeth Smith's slides at PHPBenelux'14

INTL

Good:

Wrapper around ICU library

Standardised locales, set locale per script

Number formatting

Currency formatting

Message formatting (replaces gettext)

Calendars, dates, timezone and time

Transliterator

Spoofchecker

Resource bundles

Convertors

IDN support

Graphemes

Collation

Iterators

Bad:

Does not support zend_multibite

Does not support HTTP input output conversion

Does not support function overloading

mb_string

Enables zend_multibyte support

Supports transparent HTTP in/out encoding

Provides some wrappers for funtionallity such as strtoupper

ICONV

Primary for charset conversion

Output buffer handler

mime encoding functionality

conversion

some string helpers (len, substr, strpos, strrpos)

Stream Filter stream_filter_append($fp, 'convert.iconv.ISO-2022-JP/EUC-JP')

DATABASES

mysql: Charset and collation on tables and on connection (not the collation). Also don't use mysql - msqli or PDO

postgresql: pg_set_client_encoding

sqlite(3): Make sure it was compiled with unicode and intl support

Some other Gotchas

You cannot use unicode filenames with PHP and windows unless you use a 3rd part extension.

Send everything in ASCII if you are using exec, proc_open and other command line calls

Plain text is not plain text, files have encodings

You can convert files on the fly with the iconv filter

I ll update this answer in case things change features added and so on.

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

2

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

add a comment |

First of all if you are in < 5.3PHP then no. You've got a ton of problems to tackle.

I am surprised that none has mentioned the intl library, the one that has good support for unicode, graphemes, string operations , localisation and many more, see below.

I will quote some information about unicode support in PHP by Elizabeth Smith's slides at PHPBenelux'14

INTL

Good:

Wrapper around ICU library

Standardised locales, set locale per script

Number formatting

Currency formatting

Message formatting (replaces gettext)

Calendars, dates, timezone and time

Transliterator

Spoofchecker

Resource bundles

Convertors

IDN support

Graphemes

Collation

Iterators

Bad:

Does not support zend_multibite

Does not support HTTP input output conversion

Does not support function overloading

mb_string

Enables zend_multibyte support

Supports transparent HTTP in/out encoding

Provides some wrappers for funtionallity such as strtoupper

ICONV

Primary for charset conversion

Output buffer handler

mime encoding functionality

conversion

some string helpers (len, substr, strpos, strrpos)

Stream Filter stream_filter_append($fp, 'convert.iconv.ISO-2022-JP/EUC-JP')

DATABASES

mysql: Charset and collation on tables and on connection (not the collation). Also don't use mysql - msqli or PDO

postgresql: pg_set_client_encoding

sqlite(3): Make sure it was compiled with unicode and intl support

Some other Gotchas

You cannot use unicode filenames with PHP and windows unless you use a 3rd part extension.

Send everything in ASCII if you are using exec, proc_open and other command line calls

Plain text is not plain text, files have encodings

You can convert files on the fly with the iconv filter

I ll update this answer in case things change features added and so on.

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

2

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

add a comment |

First of all if you are in < 5.3PHP then no. You've got a ton of problems to tackle.

I am surprised that none has mentioned the intl library, the one that has good support for unicode, graphemes, string operations , localisation and many more, see below.

I will quote some information about unicode support in PHP by Elizabeth Smith's slides at PHPBenelux'14

INTL

Good:

Wrapper around ICU library

Standardised locales, set locale per script

Number formatting

Currency formatting

Message formatting (replaces gettext)

Calendars, dates, timezone and time

Transliterator

Spoofchecker

Resource bundles

Convertors

IDN support

Graphemes

Collation

Iterators

Bad:

Does not support zend_multibite

Does not support HTTP input output conversion

Does not support function overloading

mb_string

Enables zend_multibyte support

Supports transparent HTTP in/out encoding

Provides some wrappers for funtionallity such as strtoupper

ICONV

Primary for charset conversion

Output buffer handler

mime encoding functionality

conversion

some string helpers (len, substr, strpos, strrpos)

Stream Filter stream_filter_append($fp, 'convert.iconv.ISO-2022-JP/EUC-JP')

DATABASES

mysql: Charset and collation on tables and on connection (not the collation). Also don't use mysql - msqli or PDO

postgresql: pg_set_client_encoding

sqlite(3): Make sure it was compiled with unicode and intl support

Some other Gotchas

You cannot use unicode filenames with PHP and windows unless you use a 3rd part extension.

Send everything in ASCII if you are using exec, proc_open and other command line calls

Plain text is not plain text, files have encodings

You can convert files on the fly with the iconv filter

I ll update this answer in case things change features added and so on.

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

First of all if you are in < 5.3PHP then no. You've got a ton of problems to tackle.

I am surprised that none has mentioned the intl library, the one that has good support for unicode, graphemes, string operations , localisation and many more, see below.

I will quote some information about unicode support in PHP by Elizabeth Smith's slides at PHPBenelux'14

INTL

Good:

Wrapper around ICU library

Standardised locales, set locale per script

Number formatting

Currency formatting

Message formatting (replaces gettext)

Calendars, dates, timezone and time

Transliterator

Spoofchecker

Resource bundles

Convertors

IDN support

Graphemes

Collation

Iterators

Bad:

Does not support zend_multibite

Does not support HTTP input output conversion

Does not support function overloading

mb_string

Enables zend_multibyte support

Supports transparent HTTP in/out encoding

Provides some wrappers for funtionallity such as strtoupper

ICONV

Primary for charset conversion

Output buffer handler

mime encoding functionality

conversion

some string helpers (len, substr, strpos, strrpos)

Stream Filter stream_filter_append($fp, 'convert.iconv.ISO-2022-JP/EUC-JP')

DATABASES

mysql: Charset and collation on tables and on connection (not the collation). Also don't use mysql - msqli or PDO

postgresql: pg_set_client_encoding

sqlite(3): Make sure it was compiled with unicode and intl support

Some other Gotchas

You cannot use unicode filenames with PHP and windows unless you use a 3rd part extension.

Send everything in ASCII if you are using exec, proc_open and other command line calls

Plain text is not plain text, files have encodings

You can convert files on the fly with the iconv filter

I ll update this answer in case things change features added and so on.

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

edited Feb 16 '14 at 17:37

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

answered Jan 27 '14 at 9:16

Jimmy Kane

9,86065482

2

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

add a comment |

2

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

Yes, right. Mysqli and PDO can use their native drivers. Also they can use mysqlnd driver if you will compile php with --with-mysqli=mysqlnd --with-pdo-mysql=mysqlnd options.

– Alexander Yancharuk
Feb 16 '14 at 17:54

add a comment |

I recently discovered that using strtolower() can cause issues where the data is truncated after a special character.

The solution was to use

mb_strtolower($string, 'UTF-8');

mb_ uses MultiByte. It supports more characters but in general is a little slower.

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

add a comment |

I recently discovered that using strtolower() can cause issues where the data is truncated after a special character.

The solution was to use

mb_strtolower($string, 'UTF-8');

mb_ uses MultiByte. It supports more characters but in general is a little slower.

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

add a comment |

I recently discovered that using strtolower() can cause issues where the data is truncated after a special character.

The solution was to use

mb_strtolower($string, 'UTF-8');

mb_ uses MultiByte. It supports more characters but in general is a little slower.

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

I recently discovered that using strtolower() can cause issues where the data is truncated after a special character.

The solution was to use

mb_strtolower($string, 'UTF-8');

mb_ uses MultiByte. It supports more characters but in general is a little slower.

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

edited May 4 '16 at 12:26

Martin

12.5k53579

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

answered Jan 13 '14 at 9:37

Notflip

2,19462857

add a comment |

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

add a comment |

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

add a comment |

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

edited Jun 17 '15 at 0:20

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

answered Sep 10 '14 at 3:39

Puerto AGP

19329

add a comment |

In PHP, you'll need to either use the multibyte functions, or turn on mbstring.func_overload. That way things like strlen will work if you have characters that take more than one byte.

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

4

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

add a comment |

In PHP, you'll need to either use the multibyte functions, or turn on mbstring.func_overload. That way things like strlen will work if you have characters that take more than one byte.

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

4

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

add a comment |

In PHP, you'll need to either use the multibyte functions, or turn on mbstring.func_overload. That way things like strlen will work if you have characters that take more than one byte.

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

In PHP, you'll need to either use the multibyte functions, or turn on mbstring.func_overload. That way things like strlen will work if you have characters that take more than one byte.

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:29

JW.

36.1k2796116

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

4

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

add a comment |

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

4

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

Great tip about the func_overload setting - allows for minimal modification to existing code.

– Simon East
Jan 15 '14 at 4:56

Just be careful -- some code might actually be relying on the one-byte-per-character nature of the standard string functions.

– JW.
Jan 15 '14 at 18:18

Important to note that the mbstring.func_overload feature is being deprecated as of PHP 7.2, due to the issues noted in @JW's comment above. So the best advice is: Yes you should definitely use the mbstring functions, but don't use the overload feature to get the standard functions to work as multibyte.

– Simba
Feb 7 '17 at 13:08

add a comment |

I have just went through the same issue and found a good solution at PHP manuals.

I changed all my file encoding to UTF8 then the default encoding on my connection. This solved all the problems.

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {

    printf("Error loading character set utf8: %sn", $mysqli->error);

} else {

   printf("Current character set: %sn", $mysqli->character_set_name());

}

View Source

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

2

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

add a comment |

I have just went through the same issue and found a good solution at PHP manuals.

I changed all my file encoding to UTF8 then the default encoding on my connection. This solved all the problems.

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {

    printf("Error loading character set utf8: %sn", $mysqli->error);

} else {

   printf("Current character set: %sn", $mysqli->character_set_name());

}

View Source

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

2

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

add a comment |

I have just went through the same issue and found a good solution at PHP manuals.

I changed all my file encoding to UTF8 then the default encoding on my connection. This solved all the problems.

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {

    printf("Error loading character set utf8: %sn", $mysqli->error);

} else {

   printf("Current character set: %sn", $mysqli->character_set_name());

}

View Source

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

I have just went through the same issue and found a good solution at PHP manuals.

I changed all my file encoding to UTF8 then the default encoding on my connection. This solved all the problems.

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {

    printf("Error loading character set utf8: %sn", $mysqli->error);

} else {

   printf("Current character set: %sn", $mysqli->character_set_name());

}

View Source

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

edited Jan 21 '17 at 14:24

Funk Forty Niner

80.6k1247102

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

answered May 5 '15 at 21:36

Abdul Sadik Yalcin

7632828

2

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

add a comment |

2

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

I spent an hour trying to figure out an encoding problem on a page I'm working on and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out stuff. I always consult this page and your answer helped me a lot. Got my upvote. In my case, set_charset('utf8mb4') did not work but >set_charset("utf8") did and that wasn't actually shown in the other answers.

– Funk Forty Niner
Jan 21 '17 at 14:16

@FunkFortyNiner Beware: set_charset("utf8") may work but will behave differently (see the remarks about the difference between utf8 and utf8mb4 and the mysql version history). Use utf8 if you have to AND ONLY if you know what you're doing!

– Martin Hennings
Apr 24 '18 at 10:09

add a comment |

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

add a comment |

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

add a comment |

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

edited Feb 11 '14 at 19:49

Chuck Burgess

10k53372

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

answered Nov 10 '08 at 21:48

jalf

207k43293514

add a comment |

The top answer is excellent. Here is what I had to on a regular debian/php/mysql setup:

// storage

// debian. apparently already utf-8



// retrieval

// the mysql database was stored in utf-8, 

// but apparently php was requesting iso. this worked: 

// ***notice "utf8", without dash, this is a mysql encoding***

mysql_set_charset('utf8');



// delivery

// php.ini did not have a default charset, 

// (it was commented out, shared host) and

// no http encoding was specified in the apache headers.

// this made apache send out a utf-8 header

// (and perhaps made php actually send out utf-8)

// ***notice "utf-8", with dash, this is a php encoding***

ini_set('default_charset','utf-8');



// submission

// this worked in all major browsers once apache

// was sending out the utf-8 header. i didnt add

// the accept-charset attribute.



// processing

// changed a few commands in php, like substr,

// to mb_substr

that was all !

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

add a comment |

The top answer is excellent. Here is what I had to on a regular debian/php/mysql setup:

// storage

// debian. apparently already utf-8



// retrieval

// the mysql database was stored in utf-8, 

// but apparently php was requesting iso. this worked: 

// ***notice "utf8", without dash, this is a mysql encoding***

mysql_set_charset('utf8');



// delivery

// php.ini did not have a default charset, 

// (it was commented out, shared host) and

// no http encoding was specified in the apache headers.

// this made apache send out a utf-8 header

// (and perhaps made php actually send out utf-8)

// ***notice "utf-8", with dash, this is a php encoding***

ini_set('default_charset','utf-8');



// submission

// this worked in all major browsers once apache

// was sending out the utf-8 header. i didnt add

// the accept-charset attribute.



// processing

// changed a few commands in php, like substr,

// to mb_substr

that was all !

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

add a comment |

The top answer is excellent. Here is what I had to on a regular debian/php/mysql setup:

// storage

// debian. apparently already utf-8



// retrieval

// the mysql database was stored in utf-8, 

// but apparently php was requesting iso. this worked: 

// ***notice "utf8", without dash, this is a mysql encoding***

mysql_set_charset('utf8');



// delivery

// php.ini did not have a default charset, 

// (it was commented out, shared host) and

// no http encoding was specified in the apache headers.

// this made apache send out a utf-8 header

// (and perhaps made php actually send out utf-8)

// ***notice "utf-8", with dash, this is a php encoding***

ini_set('default_charset','utf-8');



// submission

// this worked in all major browsers once apache

// was sending out the utf-8 header. i didnt add

// the accept-charset attribute.



// processing

// changed a few commands in php, like substr,

// to mb_substr

that was all !

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

The top answer is excellent. Here is what I had to on a regular debian/php/mysql setup:

// storage

// debian. apparently already utf-8



// retrieval

// the mysql database was stored in utf-8, 

// but apparently php was requesting iso. this worked: 

// ***notice "utf8", without dash, this is a mysql encoding***

mysql_set_charset('utf8');



// delivery

// php.ini did not have a default charset, 

// (it was commented out, shared host) and

// no http encoding was specified in the apache headers.

// this made apache send out a utf-8 header

// (and perhaps made php actually send out utf-8)

// ***notice "utf-8", with dash, this is a php encoding***

ini_set('default_charset','utf-8');



// submission

// this worked in all major browsers once apache

// was sending out the utf-8 header. i didnt add

// the accept-charset attribute.



// processing

// changed a few commands in php, like substr,

// to mb_substr

that was all !

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

answered Jan 14 '11 at 16:13

commonpike

5,14913847

add a comment |

This may cause troubles in case you're using anything other than UTF8.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

add a comment |

This may cause troubles in case you're using anything other than UTF8.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

add a comment |

This may cause troubles in case you're using anything other than UTF8.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

This may cause troubles in case you're using anything other than UTF8.

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

answered Feb 11 '15 at 23:52

Nikola Tulimirovic

54959

add a comment |

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