Cannot insert ♥ character in MySQL table

Question

I am trying to insert a ♥ into a MySQL table with PHP. It comes from an input field.

The table's charset is utf8_general_ci, and in PHP I use mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'"); right after connection is made.

But the ♥ just becomes a '?' when inserted.

I have also tried inserting ♥ into the table from phpMyAdmin, but it returns this error:

Warning: #1366 Incorrect string value: '\xE2\x99\xA5' for column 'subject' at row 1

The result is also '?' instead of ♥.

Any ideas on what causes this?

Try to follow [Handling Unicode Front To Back In A Web App](http://kunststube.net/frontback/) — deceze, Sep 12 '12 at 10:45
try http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7781103/sql-server-set-character-set-not-collation — Sathish, Sep 12 '12 at 10:49

Omesh · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-17T10:31:12.887

23

This is because of incompatible character set and collation defined on table's column.

Try changing character set of your table or column to UTF8.

ALTER TABLE table_name CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8;

or

ALTER TABLE table_name MODIFY col VARCHAR(255) CHARACTER SET utf8;

edited Oct 17 '12 at 10:31

answered Sep 12 '12 at 10:48

Omesh

Ohh! I just changed the charset of the table, not the columns... Changed the columns to utf8, and now everything works! Thanks! – Trolley Sep 12 '12 at 10:50

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 12 '12 at 10:48

0

try this:

ini_set('default_charset', 'utf-8');

in your php file and set the :

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

and chek in you data base for collation to utf8_general_ci

answered Sep 12 '12 at 10:48

Harshal

default_charset and meta-tag wouldn't work, as I'm seeing the '?' in phpMyAdmin. – Trolley Sep 12 '12 at 10:49
than try to set character encoding through ini_set() – Harshal Sep 12 '12 at 10:50

2 Answers2