Storing and displaying unicode string (हिन्दी) using PHP and MySQL

I have to store hindi text in a MySQL database, fetch it using a PHP script and display it on a webpage. I did the following:

I created a database and set its encoding to UTF-8 and also the collation to utf8_bin. I added a varchar field in the table and set it to accept UTF-8 text in the charset property.

Then I set about adding data to it. Here I had to copy data from an existing site. The hindi text looks like this: सूर्योदय:05:30

I directly copied this text into my database and used the PHP code echo(utf8_encode($string)) to display the data. Upon doing so the browser showed me "??????".

When I inserted the UTF equivalent of the text by going to "view source" in the browser, however, सूर्योदय translates into सूर्योदय.

If I enter and store सूर्योदय in the database, it converts perfectly.

So what I want to know is how I can directly store सूर्योदय into my database and fetch it and display it in my webpage using PHP.

Also, can anyone help me understand if there's a script which when I type in सूर्योदय, gives me सूर्योदय?

Solution Found

I wrote the following sample script which worked for me. Hope it helps someone else too

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Hindi</title></head>
  <body>
    <?php
      include("connection.php"); //simple connection setting
      $result = mysql_query("SET NAMES utf8"); //the main trick
      $cmd = "select * from hindi";
      $result = mysql_query($cmd);
      while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_row($result))
      {
          echo ($myrow[0]);
      }
    ?>
  </body>
</html>

The dump for my database storing hindi utf strings is

CREATE TABLE `hindi` (
  `data` varchar(1000) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin default NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

INSERT INTO `hindi` VALUES ('सूर्योदय');

Now my question is, how did it work without specifying "META" or header info?

Thanks!

Did you set proper charset in the HTML Head section?

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

or you can set content type in your php script using -

   header( 'Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8' );

There are already some discussions here on StackOverflow - please have a look

How to make MySQL handle UTF-8 properly setting utf8 with mysql through php

PHP/MySQL with encoding problems

So what i want to know is how can i directly store सूर्योदय into my database and fetch it and display in my webpage using PHP.

I am not sure what you mean by "directly storing in the database" .. did you mean entering data using PhpMyAdmin or any other similar tool? If yes, I have tried using PhpMyAdmin to input unicode data, so it has worked fine for me - You could try inputting data using phpmyadmin and retrieve it using a php script to confirm. If you need to submit data via a Php script just set the NAMES and CHARACTER SET when you create mysql connection, before execute insert queries, and when you select data. Have a look at the above posts to find the syntax. Hope it helps.

** UPDATE ** Just fixed some typos etc

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


<?php 
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_query('SET character_set_results=utf8');
mysql_query('SET names=utf8');
mysql_query('SET character_set_client=utf8');
mysql_query('SET character_set_connection=utf8');
mysql_query('SET character_set_results=utf8');
mysql_query('SET collation_connection=utf8_general_ci');

mysql_select_db('onlinetest',$con);

$nith = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `TAMIL` (
  `data` varchar(1000) character set utf8 collate utf8_bin default NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1";

if (!mysql_query($nith,$con))
{
  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
}

$nithi = "INSERT INTO `TAMIL` VALUES ('இந்தியா நாட்டின் பக்கங்கள்')";

if (!mysql_query($nithi,$con))
{
  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());
}

$result = mysql_query("SET NAMES utf8");//the main trick
$cmd = "select * from TAMIL";
$result = mysql_query($cmd);
while($myrow = mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
    echo ($myrow[0]);
}
?>
</body>
</html>

Storing and displaying unicode string (हिन्दी) using PHP and MySQL

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