PHP MYSQL Insert Data in Arabic Language

Question

I am trying to insert some Arabic Language data into MySQL using PHP and an HTML form. When I insert the data in to MYSQL table, the table field represents data as مرحبا العالم.

But when I access the same data with PHP and show it in my webpage, it shows the correct data. I am using:

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

meta tag in my web page to show Arabic data. My question is why my data looks like this: مرحبا العالم in MySQL table, and how should I correct it.

Answer 1

You have to do both of the following:

1. Make sure your database encoding and collation is utf8_general_ci (both for the field itself and the table as well as the database).

2. Send two commands right after establishing a connection to the database:

   mysql_query("SET NAMES utf8;");
   
   mysql_query("SET CHARACTER_SET utf8;");
   

Answer 2

You aren't mentioning the MySQL version that you are using, but if using 5.0.7 or later, as per the official PHP documentation:

This is the preferred way to change the charset. Using mysql_query() to set it (such as SET NAMES utf8) is not recommended. See the MySQL character set concepts section for more information.

e.g., ^{Assuming that you are using the mysql_query extension.}

<?php
  $link = mysql_connect('localhost','user1','pass1',TRUE);

  mysql_selectdb('db1', $link);

  mysql_set_charset('utf8',$link); 
?>

Other considerations:

• The files being used should be encoded with UTF-8
• The database, table and field should all be encoded and using the collation utf8_general_ci
• The PHP headers and HTML headers should also be set to UTF-8

---

As a side note, The use of mysql_query extension is discouraged. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used.

See also MySQL: choosing an API guide and related FAQ for more information.

Answer 3

You should use this line:

@mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8' ");

See this function:

function _connect($user, $pass, $host)
{
    $conn = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass);

    if (!$conn)
        return false;

    @mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8' ");
    //more....
}