UTF-8 not representing data as it should

Question

I need to insert Croatian characters in MySQL database.

I have done all most everything but I still have a problem when I want to insert some Croatian characters.

What have I done so far:

I have downloaded and installed MySQL Server 5.6 hoping that I will see Croatian collation but I couldn't find it...
I have set entire database and each of the columns on UTF8-default collation
I have put this into my php script: header("Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8");
I have tried all of the combinations such as (setting everything on cp1250, latin2-croatian-ci) and still no luck

Some of the inputs that are inserted in the database are: æèæžš and it should be ćčćžš..this was just for testing...

Does anyone has any idea of what I can do next? I really hope that there is some sort of solution for this particular type of problem.

And I am sure that a lot of people were hitting the wall just like me when we are speaking about Croatian characters in MySQL database.

EDIT: Code for inserting ( this is just for testing so it's simplify)

<?php
header("Content-Type: text/html;charset=utf-8");
$con=mysqli_connect("127.0.0.1:3306","root","admin","test");

 if (!$con)
  {
  echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
  }

 $sql="INSERT INTO test(test) VALUES('ćčćžš')";
 if (!mysqli_query($con,$sql))
      {
            die('Error: ' . mysqli_error($con));
      }else 
      {
        print '<script type="text/javascript">alert("ok")</script>';
      }

    mysqli_close($con);
?>

just use utf-8, nothing else. Now, what's the process that leads to the insertion? php? files? inputs? phpmyadmin? — Sebas, Mar 06 '13 at 23:58
ok, see my answer there: http://stackoverflow.com/a/11432833/1291428 — Sebas, Mar 07 '13 at 00:07
You are not storing the PHP file itself as UTF-8. That is your problem. — Isaac, Mar 07 '13 at 00:07
@Sebas I have tried exactly what you have said and still the problem persist. — user123_456, Mar 07 '13 at 00:12
go to php my admin and insert the same value manually to see — Sebas, Mar 07 '13 at 00:16
I am not using phpmyadmin instead I'm using MySQL workbench. I can normally insert characters in the database and I can see them as they should be but when I'm representing them then I have the same problem with encoding. — user123_456, Mar 07 '13 at 00:20
so your database is ok. This is only your php and html files that must be saved in utf8, and your database session (the one you open in your php file) that must be setup to use utf8 — Sebas, Mar 07 '13 at 00:24

Vucko · Answer 1 · 2013-03-07T00:06:40.283

3

For Croatian do:

Your tables in the database must be utf8_general_ci.
Your files must be saved as utf8 (without BOM).
After connecting to your database with PHP, add this query('SET NAMES utf8');.
In your documents <head> tag add <meta charset="utf-8" />.

Tested and it works ( for Croatian ).

Živio

edited Mar 07 '13 at 00:06

answered Mar 07 '13 at 00:00

Vucko

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Pozdrav. I have tried what you have said and it's not working for me. I am still not getting data in the right format...any more idea? – user123_456 Mar 07 '13 at 00:12
@denonth looking at your php code, do you have `mysql_select_db` after the connection? – Vucko Mar 07 '13 at 00:13
no this is the code that is used for testing. there is no `mysql_select_db` – user123_456 Mar 07 '13 at 00:15
@denonth does this code successfully add the `ćčćžš` in the table ? Did you change your database coalition to `utf8_general_ci` ? In your n++, did you put [utf8 (without BOM)](http://superuser.com/questions/292086/how-can-i-enforce-so-notepad-uses-utf-8-every-time-i-create-a-new-file) ? – Vucko Mar 07 '13 at 00:20
Done exactly as you wrote it..this is inserted instead `ÄÄ‡ÄÅ¾` – user123_456 Mar 07 '13 at 00:21
@denonth are you using HTML5 ? If not , put `` in your documents (.php) ``. – Vucko Mar 07 '13 at 00:22
let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/25732/discussion-between-vucko-and-denonth) – Vucko Mar 07 '13 at 00:26

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '13 at 07:45

To read UTF-8 character correctly, you can create your table like this:

create table patient(
/* your columns  */
)character set utf8 collate utf8_unicode_ci;

and to insert/retrieve your data by adding set_charset('utf8') in php:

$mysqli=new mysqli($host,$user,$password,$database);
$mysqli->set_charset('utf8');
if(mysqli_connect_errno()){
    echo 'Could not connect to database. Error: '.mysqli_connect_error();
    exit();
}

$query="select * from YOURTABLE";
$result=$mysqli->query($query);

if($result->num_rows>0){
    while($row=$result->fetch_assoc()){
        //reading $row data
    }
    $result->close();
}

$mysqli->close();

and also, remember to set your html charset to UTF-8:

<meta charset="UTF-8">

$mysqli->set_charset('utf8'); this was the problem – user123_456 Mar 07 '13 at 16:37 — user123_456, Mar 07 '13 at 16:37

UTF-8 not representing data as it should

2 Answers2