php encode JSON from mysql db but it shows "???" data

Question

API link :: http://www.nobannoo.com/AppLandingPage/text.php

<?php
require_once 'dbconfig.php';
$query = "SELECT * FROM tc_cerealname";
$stmt = $DBcon->prepare($query);
$stmt->execute();
$userData = array();
while($row=$stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){
    $userData['All Cereal Name'][] = $row;  
}
echo json_encode($userData, JSON_UNESCAPED_UNICODE);
?>

Output :: "id": "1", "cereal_name_en": "Paddy", "cereal_name_bn": "???"

Desired Output :: "cereal_name_bn": "ধান"

perhaps this may help: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23322312/php-json-encodestring-json-unescaped-unicode-not-escaping-czech-chars — akrys, Dec 04 '16 at 10:44
What exactly doesn't help? The answer there suggests two things that are relevant here: 1.) It suggests to send the output as JSON, by adding `header('content-type: application/json;charset=utf-8');` (I just added a charset to be sure it's utf-8) 2.) It also suggests to make sure the database connection uses UTF-8 as well. It describes it for mysqli, but on php.net I found a comment which describes a possible solution for PDO: https://secure.php.net/manual/en/pdo.construct.php#113498 — akrys, Dec 04 '16 at 11:30

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

See 'question marks' in Trouble with utf8 characters; what I see is not what I stored

The bytes to be stored are not encoded as utf8/utf8mb4. Fix this.
The column in the database is CHARACTER SET utf8 (or utf8mb4). Fix this.
Also, check that the connection during reading is UTF-8.

Do you have

$DBCon->set_charset('utf8');

(or utf8mb4).

But, I suspect the data was not properly stored. See the notes in that link for doing SELECT col, HEX(col) FROM ....

php encode JSON from mysql db but it shows "???" data

1 Answers1