On windows, with "stock" PHP 5.1.2, there is no set_charset function at all. One may have to replace php_mysqli.dll, and libmysql.dll with proper versions, which provided by MySQL at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php/
(PHP 5 >= 5.0.5, PHP 7)
mysqli::set_charset -- mysqli_set_charset — Sets the default client character set
Object oriented style
$charset
)Procedural style
Sets the default character set to be used when sending data from and to the database server.
linkProcedural style only: A link identifier returned by mysqli_connect() or mysqli_init()
charsetThe charset to be set as default.
Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.
Note:
To use this function on a Windows platform you need MySQL client library version 4.1.11 or above (for MySQL 5.0 you need 5.0.6 or above).
Note:
This is the preferred way to change the charset. Using mysqli_query() to set it (such as SET NAMES utf8) is not recommended. See the MySQL character set concepts section for more information.
Example #1 mysqli::set_charset() example
Object oriented style
<?php
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "my_user", "my_password", "test");
/* check connection */
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
exit();
}
printf("Initial character set: %s\n", $mysqli->character_set_name());
/* change character set to utf8 */
if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {
printf("Error loading character set utf8: %s\n", $mysqli->error);
exit();
} else {
printf("Current character set: %s\n", $mysqli->character_set_name());
}
$mysqli->close();
?>
Procedural style
<?php
$link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'my_user', 'my_password', 'test');
/* check connection */
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
exit();
}
printf("Initial character set: %s\n", mysqli_character_set_name($link));
/* change character set to utf8 */
if (!mysqli_set_charset($link, "utf8")) {
printf("Error loading character set utf8: %s\n", mysqli_error($link));
exit();
} else {
printf("Current character set: %s\n", mysqli_character_set_name($link));
}
mysqli_close($link);
?>
The above examples will output something similar to:
Initial character set: latin1 Current character set: utf8
On windows, with "stock" PHP 5.1.2, there is no set_charset function at all. One may have to replace php_mysqli.dll, and libmysql.dll with proper versions, which provided by MySQL at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/php/
So in my case, I had tried changing the collation from utf8mb4_unicode_ci for mysql and had to change it to uft8_general_ci.
Then pasted :
mysqli_set_charset( $con, 'utf8');
right before I did the SELECT command.
This is my code for reading from db :
/*
$DB_SERVER="db_server_name";
$DB_USER_READER="root";
$DB_PASS_READER="passw*rd";
$DB_NAME="db_name";
$DB_PORT="port number";
$SELECT_WHAT="`name_of_column_as_in_your_table`";
$WHICH_TBL="`table_name`";
$ON_WHAT_CONDITION="`id`='7'";
*/
$con = mysqli_connect($DB_SERVER, $DB_USER_READER, $DB_PASS_READER, $DB_NAME, $DB_PORT);//this is the unique connection for the selection
mysqli_set_charset( $con, 'utf8');
$slct_stmnt = "SELECT ".$SELECT_WHAT." FROM ".$WHICH_TBL." WHERE ".$ON_WHAT_CONDITION;
$slct_query = mysqli_query($con, $slct_stmnt);
if ($slct_query==true) {
//Do your stuff here . . .
}
And it worked like a charm. All the best. The above code can work with reading chineese, russian or arabic or any international language from the database's table column holding such data.