can't insert russian text into mysql database

Question

When I'm trying to insert russian text into MySQL database it inserts it like: г???????????? ?? ????????
Рісѓрїр°ріс‹рї р° с‹рір°рї

So, I have two pages: registration.php and addUser.php. In each of them

 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

Database consist of 11 tables, each table has collation: utf8_general_ci, type: MyISAM. Each field in every table has Collation: utf8_general_ci.

When I'm writing to database directly in phpMyAdmin and then show this data to web-page. In English and Russian - all OK.

But when I'm full my form with personal data on registration.php and then going to addUser.php - all russian characters displayed like I wrote upper - on page and in database too.

    function AddNewUser($Name, $Surname, $FatherName, $Email, $Password, $Phone, $DegreeID, $RankID, 
$Organization, $Department, $Country, $City, $Address, $Job)
{
        //fetch data from database for dropdown lists
        //connect to db or die)
    $db = mysql_connect($GLOBALS["gl_kussdbName"], $GLOBALS["gl_kussUserName"], $GLOBALS["gl_kussPassword"] ) or die ("Unable to connect");

    //to prevenr ????? symbols in unicode - utf-8 coding
    mysql_query("SET NAMES 'UTF8'");

    //select database
    mysql_select_db($GLOBALS["gl_kussDatabase"], $db);
    $sql = "INSERT INTO UserDetails (
UserFirstName,
UserLastName,
UserFatherName,
UserEmail,
UserPassword,
UserPhone,
UserAcadDegreeID,
UserAcadRankID,
UserOrganization,
UserDepartment,
UserCountry,
UserCity,
UserAddress,
UserPosition) 
VALUES(
'".$Name."',
'".$Surname."',
'".$FatherName."',
'".$Email."',
'".$Password."',
'".$Phone."',
'".$DegreeID."',
'".$RankID."',
'".$Organization."',
'".$Department."',
'".$Country."',
'".$City."',
'".$Address."',
'".$Job."'
);";
    //execute SQL-query
    $result = mysql_query($sql, $db);
    if (!$result) 
    {
        die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error());
    }
    //close database  = very inportant
    mysql_close($db);

}
?>

There also such information in phpMyAdmin:

auto increment increment    1
auto increment offset   1
autocommit  ON
automatic sp privileges ON
back log    50
basedir \usr\local\mysql-5.1\
big tables  OFF
binlog cache size   32,768
binlog format   STATEMENT
bulk insert buffer size 8,388,608
character set client    utf8
(Global value)  cp1251
character set connection    utf8
(Global value)  cp1251
character set database  cp1251
character set filesystem    binary
character set results   utf8
(Global value)  cp1251
character set server    cp1251
character set system    utf8
character sets dir  \usr\local\mysql-5.1\share\charsets\
collation connection    utf8_general_ci
(Global value)  cp1251_general_ci
collation database  cp1251_general_ci
collation server    cp1251_general_ci
completion type 0
concurrent insert   1

So I need to properly show, save and select russian text from database. Thanx! connect timeout 10 datadir \usr\local\mysql-5.1\data\

Answer 1

Try calling mysql_set_charset('utf8'); after connecting to the database. I think it's similar to executing a SET NAMES query, but since the PHP manual says using that function over a SET NAMES query is recommended, I'd try it.

Also, when you display your content, you could try echo htmlentities($string, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');