GET charset with mysql PDO

Question

Is there a way of retrieving the current character set with PDO? I used to have a little test with Mysqli to check if the forced character set was set by retrieving it like so:

$mysqli->get_charset();

That doesn't work on $conn = new PDO();

Any help is appreciated. I'm fairly new to PDO and trying to jump over from mysqli.

P.s. i am aware how to set the character set, just want to test how to retrieve it.

Thanks to HD answering the question I made his method static, perhaps its helpful for someone (I used some prior to 5.4 notation):

 public static function getCharset(PDO $objPdo) {      
  $objCharset = $objPdo->query("SELECT COLLATION('foo')");
  $charset = $objCharset->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM);
  return $charset[0];
 }

Interesting, I've never thought about it. I don't think there is a way to get the character set using PDO. — Jay Blanchard, Sep 30 '14 at 15:27
@JayBlanchard Maybe OP means to use http://stackoverflow.com/a/4361485/ - Not sure if this falls under as a duplicate though. Having a hard time understanding the question. — Funk Forty Niner, Sep 30 '14 at 15:29
Hi Fred, its not a duplicate as far as I'm concerned. My question is not about setting the character set, but "how" to "retrieve" the characterset with PDO just like the get_charset function with mysqli — rinserepeat, Sep 30 '14 at 15:32
@rinserepeat Which is why I said I was not sure. Thanks for the added info. See the answer given below. — Funk Forty Niner, Sep 30 '14 at 15:37
@rinserepeat do not include the answer inside your question. It's Ok If you provide an answer to your own question as a separate answer. — PhoneixS, Feb 24 '17 at 11:59

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '14 at 15:33

9

If we run the following MySQL query;

mysql> SELECT COLLATION('foo');
+-----------------------+
| COLLATION('foo')      |
+-----------------------+
| utf8_general_ci       |
+-----------------------+
1 row in set

So, we can use the following to get the charset

$objCharset = $objPdo->query("SELECT COLLATION('foo')");
echo $objCharset->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM)[0]; //Output: utf8_general_ci

You can then go a step further, and use the following (with object injection).

<?php 

class foo {
   public function get_charset($objPdo) {
      $objCharset = $objPdo->query("SELECT COLLATION('foo')");
      return $objCharset->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM)[0];
   }
}

$objFoo = new foo();
$objPDO = new PDO(...);
echo $objFoo->get_charset($objPDO);

answered Sep 30 '14 at 15:33

ʰᵈˑ

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Hi HD that seems to work with a small modifaction for me: $objCharset = $conn->query("SELECT COLLATION('foo')"); $charset = $objCharset->fetch(PDO::FETCH_NUM); echo $charset[0]; – rinserepeat Sep 30 '14 at 15:38
Ah okay! The shorthand that is used in this answer was introduced in PHP5.5 (I believe) :) – ʰᵈˑ Sep 30 '14 at 15:40
sidenote: actually _dereference_ on functions are already on PHP 5.4 and above – Kevin Sep 30 '14 at 15:43
@Ghost Thanks! I'll try remember that now – ʰᵈˑ Sep 30 '14 at 15:43
If you want the actual *charset* (not collation) use `SELECT CHARSET('');` instead. – mpen Jun 09 '16 at 23:45

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 09 '16 at 23:54

If you want the actual charset (not collation) you can do this:

$charset = $pdo->query("SELECT CHARSET('')")->fetchColumn();
if($charset === 'utf8mb4') {
    $charset = 'utf8';
}

I put the utf8mb4 check in there because it's not compatible with PHP's mb_ functions.

GET charset with mysql PDO

2 Answers2

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