'ﬁ' displaying incorrectly in database

Question

I have a mySQL database with the following

e.g. Microeconomics.

The ‘theory of the ï¬rm’

or: Resource allocation modiï¬cations.

For some reason, the text that has been input (through CKEditor), has been changed so any instances of ﬁ are in the database as 'ï¬'. I believe this is something to do with HTML entities. The text (I believe) was copy-pasted from a word document, which could be part of the problem.

How do I change (in PHP or mySQL) all instances of 'ï¬' into ﬁ? When rendered as a PDF by TCPDF, it shows a ? (e.g. financial = ?nancial, significant = signi?cant)

Thanks in advance.

This looks like an interesting option, which I may investigate further at a later date - for now I needed a very quick fix! :) — user1571215, Aug 05 '12 at 21:15
Use utf8 encoding everywhere. It will probably fix these issues. (Hmm, that is exactly what Esailija wrote. So I mean: +1 to that. :-) ) — Erwin Moller, Aug 05 '12 at 21:17

score -1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 05 '12 at 21:06

-1

This statement will correct all the false instances for the column that contains the 'ï¬'

Update table Set 
  column = replace(column, 'ï¬', 'fi')

answered Aug 05 '12 at 21:06

arnoudhgz

1,284
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Except it won't, because it's actually *three* characters. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Aug 05 '12 at 21:11
UPDATE `courseconf` SET `courseoutline` = REPLACE(`courseoutline`, 'ï¬', 'fi') seemed to do the trick for 90% of cases – user1571215 Aug 05 '12 at 21:13
1

That is a quickfix, not a solution to the underlying source of the problem. It feels like driving a car without brakes, only to say (after an accident): "They will replace all broken parts at the garage.". – Erwin Moller Aug 05 '12 at 21:15
He only needed a quickfix because there was something copy paste from a word document. When you use CKEditor you can use 'paste from Word button'. – arnoudhgz Aug 05 '12 at 21:17
@user1571215: Unfortunately now other ligatures are broken. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Aug 05 '12 at 21:18

'ﬁ' displaying incorrectly in database

1 Answers1