Outputting UTF-8 special characters with PHP

Question

I am trying to JSON_encode data from a MySQL database. The characters in the DB are as should.

For example, some of the data contains this: è

When I print out to the browser, this is what I get for all items that have special characters:

{"category":null}

Here is the very basic watered down version of the code I am using to test:

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT category FROM master_cat ORDER BY category ASC");
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql))
        $output[] = $row;

print(json_encode($output));

How can I get actual data to appear in browser when I am reading the JSON on the web page and not null?

That is a very basic watered down version if you can get `$output[] = $row` and `json_encode($output)` resulting in `{"category":null}` — dbf, Sep 12 '12 at 22:57

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

4

You could use utf8_encode on the text fields, but can you check that the data is, indeed, there? Maybe output the data in HTML instead of JSON-encoding it? Because on my system UTF8 is either recognized, gives error, or some characters are truncated.

NULL smells of database data missing.

If the data is there, then:

mysql_query('SET NAMES utf8;');
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT category FROM master_cat ORDER BY category ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql))
    $output[] = array_map('utf8_encode', $row);

print(json_encode($output));

You might want to specify explicitly the MIME type and charset too:

Header('Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8');

see What is the correct JSON content type?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

Community

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answered Sep 12 '12 at 22:58

LSerni

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I do know the data is there. If I replace, for example è with e, it shows up. – TheLettuceMaster Sep 12 '12 at 23:03
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@KickingLettuce: Also make sure the MySQL is set to be in UTF-8 mode or similar. – Yann Ramin Sep 12 '12 at 23:07
Well spotted, @YannRamin! Adding to answer. – LSerni Sep 12 '12 at 23:11
Interesting, my database shows this item `Tèst` and now my output is not `null` but `{"category":"T\u00c3\u00a8st"}` (I used your code above) – TheLettuceMaster Sep 12 '12 at 23:33
Which seems to be correct. The "è" is encoded as a two-byte UTF8, C3 A8, which gets JSON-encoded as \u00c3 \u00a8. Now the client must interpret it. You're almost there! :-D – LSerni Sep 12 '12 at 23:37
@Iserni the client being ... the browser? – TheLettuceMaster Sep 12 '12 at 23:46
Yes, the Javascript on the browser (or any other JSON client). It will decode \u00c3\u00a8 back into "è". – LSerni Sep 12 '12 at 23:49

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 25 '15 at 16:40

2

You should use JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE to encode multibyte Unicode characters literally (default is to escape as \uXXXX). Available since PHP 5.4.0. In this case:

echo json_encode($output, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);

answered Jun 25 '15 at 16:40

Yordan Yordanov

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Outputting UTF-8 special characters with PHP

2 Answers2