Unicode characters properly pulled from MySQL [PHP MYSQL]

Question

I am fetching the image filepath from my MySQL database, and everything worked fine until the name of the path has some unicode characters associated to it. For example, I am using this code to fetch the image filepath;

$sql = "SELECT images FROM agents";
$basePath = "http://localhost/img/";
$result = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
    $img = $row['images'];
    $actualPath = $basePath . $img;
    echo $actualPath;
}

For English alphabet pictures, it's okay, it turned out something like http://localhost/img/selena.jpg but if it's using unicode characters, it will be like http://localhost/img/11_??.jpg whereas the true filepath would be http://localhost/img/11_副本.jpg
How do I make that 副本 characters stay after it is pulled from MySQL rather than just becoming ?? symbol ?

EDIT: I used a prepared statement method, not the basic mysqli_query() command.

You have to check the character set in PHP and mysql and the file saved name. — Naga, Dec 23 '16 at 06:50
@AfiqIzzat try `$actualPath = $basePath . htmlentities($img, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8');` — Beginner, Dec 23 '16 at 08:54
@Beginner, the result still remains the same, it outputs å¯æ¬ instead of 副本 — Afiq Izzat, Dec 23 '16 at 08:59
@AfiqIzzat whats the result if you `var_dump($row);` also check the encoding of your column `images` if is `UTF-8` if not change it `UTF-8` — Beginner, Dec 23 '16 at 09:01
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/38363566/trouble-with-utf8-characters-what-i-see-is-not-what-i-stored ; look for "question marks". — Rick James, Dec 24 '16 at 02:13

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 23 '16 at 06:51

1

Use SET NAMES UTF8 before your query to handle Unicode characters.

mysqli_query($con, 'SET NAMES UTF8');

$sql = "SELECT images FROM agents";
$basePath = "http://localhost/img/";
$result = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
   $img = $row['images'];
   $actualPath = $basePath . $img;
   echo $actualPath;
}

answered Dec 23 '16 at 06:51

Samir Selia

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Does it work the same if I used prepared statement ? – Afiq Izzat Dec 23 '16 at 06:55
Now, it becomes `http://localhost/img/11_å¯æ¬.jpg`, I still want it to become `副本` – Afiq Izzat Dec 23 '16 at 07:03
Can you post how this image link is stored in the DB? – Samir Selia Dec 23 '16 at 09:07
I stored only the filepath of the image and call it on another server for the picture by just relaying the filepath (basepath + imgpath). The filename is 11_副本.jpg. – Afiq Izzat Dec 23 '16 at 09:23
when you query through terminal or any tool, does your image value in the DB look exactly like `11_副本.jpg` ? – Samir Selia Dec 23 '16 at 09:41
thanks! this solved about an hour of scratching my head. – scott.schaffer Dec 21 '17 at 21:26

Unicode characters properly pulled from MySQL [PHP MYSQL]

1 Answers1