MySQL Character Sets

MySQL

MySQL, by default, uses LATIN1 encoding. You can verify this by opening up a mysql shell and running this statement:

SHOW VARIABLES WHERE variable_name = 'character_set_client';

MySQL and PHP

See what encoding PHP is using to connect as:

$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'pass');
$charset = mysql_client_encoding($link);

Likewise, you can override the setting and change it. The code must be directly after creating the MySQL connection:

$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'user', 'pass');
$bool = mysql_set_charset('utf8', $link);
$charset = mysql_client_encoding($link);

Using mysqli driver instead of mysql:

$link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'user', 'pass', 'world');
mysqli_set_charset('utf8', $link);
$charset = mysqli_character_set_name($link);

Global Variables

You can change the database to use UTF8 by changing the runtime variables:

SET @@character_set_client = 'utf8';
SET @@character_set_connection = 'utf8';
SET @@character_set_database = 'utf8';
SET @@character_set_results = 'utf8';
SET @@character_set_server = 'utf8';

Database Configuration

MySQL needs to be configured to use UTF8, or it will still use LATIN1 by default:

[mysqld_safe]
character-set-server=utf8

[mysqld]
character-set-server=utf8

[client]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqldump]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqladmin]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqlcheck]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqlimport]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqlshow]
default-character-set=utf8