PHP Echoing strange characters

Question

The program gets 5 variables from 2 database tables and compares them to each other. Each correct match increments a correct variable.

I should be getting a number like "100%" but instead get "�%" and "?%" etc. or just random characters.

See below extract from the HTML page

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html xmlns="w3.org/1999/xhtml"; xml:lang="en" lang="en"> 
<head> 
<meta charset="UTF-8" /> 
</head>
<body>
<?php

        $user = $_SESSION['currentUser'];

        $answerCheck1 = mysqli_query($conn,"SELECT * FROM tutorial_exam");
        $answerRowCheck1 = mysqli_fetch_array($answerCheck1);

        $answerCheck2 = mysqli_query($conn,"SELECT * FROM tutorials_test WHERE user_id='$user'");
        $answerRowCheck2 = mysqli_fetch_array($answerCheck2);

        $answerCheckT = mysqli_query($conn,"SELECT * FROM tutorials WHERE user_id='$user'");
        $answerRowCheckT = mysqli_fetch_array($answerCheckT);
        $total = $answerRowCheckT['exam'];
        if($total > 0){$total = $total ."%";}else{$total = '';}

        $counter1 = 1;
        $correct1 = 0;
        $userAnswer1 = '';
        $databaseAnswer1 = '';
        while($counter1 <= 5)
            {
                $index1 = 'q'.$counter1;
                $userAnswer1 = $answerRowCheck2[$index1];
                $databaseAnswer1 = $answerRowCheck1[$index1];
                if($userAnswer1 == $databaseAnswer1)
                {
                    $correct1 = $correct1 + 1;
                    //$correct = $answerRow[$counter];
                }
                $counter1 = $counter1 + 1;
            }
        $mark1 = $correct1 / 5 * 100;
        $mark1 = round($mark1,0);

        echo $mark1 . "%";

?>
</body>
</html>

I'd try to drop the percent sign and append it first at the very end... — Julian Berger, Jul 27 '15 at 09:55
Try to set in the header the encode value to `utf-8` or `iso-8859-1` which decode these kind of characters. If you need a fast method to set up the header ,simply add _HTML tags_ ` `, and don't forget to close your html. — Anwar, Jul 27 '15 at 09:56
I have tried with both encodings, the browser I use also makes no difference. — Dietrich, Jul 27 '15 at 10:02

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '15 at 09:54

1

Just a suggestion, try adding this in the <head> section of your page:

<meta charset="utf-8">

answered Jul 27 '15 at 09:54

questhat23

128
5

Thanx for the replies guys, I have tried that and it has not changed anything. See the link to the screenshot below. The strange characters only show on the page in about 1 in every 5 page loads and also only on the first instance of the code that echoes something. http://postimg.org/image/txizye80p/ – Dietrich Jul 27 '15 at 12:24

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

0

We run our system from memory sticks with Server2Go, and what seems to have fixed it is updating the PHP version on the server2Go systems.

We found out how to do that in another Stack Overflow thread: Other answer link

edited May 23 '17 at 12:21

Community

1
1

answered Jul 27 '15 at 13:51

Dietrich

11
3

PHP Echoing strange characters

2 Answers2