How do I store Latin characters in an array and successfully retrieve them as Latin letters?

Question

I'm working on a script that retrieves values from a MySQL database for each individual letter within a $word. The script works great, but not for Latin characters like an enye.

Example Code:

$word = "Cañones";

$letters = str_split($word);

print_r($letters);

$query = "SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(Alpha) AS Alpha,
             GROUP_CONCAT(Letter_Box_Width) AS Letter_Box_Width
      FROM Font_Krinkes
      WHERE Alpha IN ('" . implode("','", $letters) . "')";

Output of print_r

Array
(
    [0] => C
    [1] => a
    [2] => ?
    [3] => ?
    [4] => o
    [5] => n
    [6] => e
    [7] => s
)
PHP Notice:  Undefined index: ?
PHP Notice:  Undefined index: ?

It seems to me that the enye is being stored and retrieved from my $letters array incorrectly. It's being retrieved as a question mark... Then, of course, the query for the question mark value fails, and this is why I'm getting the Undefined index error. How do I deal with this enye character within my array?

After working through the comments, I realize my code has more issues than just the mb_str_split issue. I'm still unable to query the database correctly.

Any help is much appreciated.

UTF-8 and utf8_bin Not sure how this pertains to the array. The Latin characters are stored fine in the database. — Wyatt Jackson, Oct 09 '18 at 23:54
Oh, so they are correcly stored in the database. But looks like php treats them as digraphs. Not sure `str_split` works with multibyte, have you checked [the reference](http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-split.php)? — msg, Oct 10 '18 at 00:00
You are correct! "str_split() will split into bytes, rather than characters when dealing with a multi-byte encoded string." — Wyatt Jackson, Oct 10 '18 at 00:06
[This](http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-split.php#V117112) seems to work, as does the next one — msg, Oct 10 '18 at 00:10
Ok. Thank you. I have made progress. The mb_str_split stores the ñ correctly in the array. print_r displays the ñ and no more question marks. But, I'm still getting the "Undefined index: ?" errors. I also checked the implode function, and it also outputs the ñ correctly... — Wyatt Jackson, Oct 10 '18 at 00:26
Possible duplicate of [PHP: Split multibyte string (word) into separate characters](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2556289/php-split-multibyte-string-word-into-separate-characters) — miken32, Oct 10 '18 at 00:28
Also, just to make sure the DB encoding was fine... I tested a simple query of "select * from Font_Krinkes where Alpha ="ñ";" and it returned the row just fine... — Wyatt Jackson, Oct 10 '18 at 00:29

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 10 '18 at 00:51

0

In storing ang getting string data from your database and making sure all characters display well, you need to set your connection's character encoding. Simply add this line: mysqli_set_charset($conn,"utf8"); wherein your $conn is your connection to the database.

answered Oct 10 '18 at 00:51

Erlisar Vasquez

460
3
13

I was so hopeful this would work, but unfortunately, this did not work either. I'm still getting the same "PHP Notice: Undefined index: ?" error when including the ñ – Wyatt Jackson Oct 10 '18 at 01:12

How do I store Latin characters in an array and successfully retrieve them as Latin letters?

1 Answers1