Using str_split on a UTF-8 encoded string

Question

I'm currently working on a project, and instead of using regular MySQL queries I thought I'd go ahead and learn how to use PDO.

I have a table called contestants, both the database, the table, and all of the columns are in utf-8. I have ten entries in the contestant table, and their column "name" contains characters such as åäö.

Now, when I fetch an entry from the database, and var_dump the name, I get a good result, a string with all the special characters intact. But what I need to do is to split the string by characters, to get them in an array that I then shuffle.

For instance, I have this string: Test ÅÄÖ Tåän

And when I run str_split I get each character in it's own key in an array. The only issue is that all the special characters display as this: �, meaning the array will be like this:

Array
(
    [0] => T
    [1] => e
    [2] => s
    [3] => t
    [4] =>  
    [5] => �
    [6] => �
    [7] => �
    [8] => �
    [9] => �
    [10] => �
    [11] =>  
    [12] => T
    [13] => �
    [14] => �
    [15] => �
    [16] => �
    [17] => n
)

As you can see, it not only messes up the characters, but it also duplicates them in str_split process. I've tried several ways to split the string, but they all have the same issue. When I output the string before the split, it shows the special characters just fine.

This is my dbConn.php code:

// Require config file: require_once('config.inc.php');

// Start PDO connection:
$dbHandle = new PDO("mysql:host=$dbHost;dbname=$dbName;charset=utf-8", $dbUser, $dbPass);
$dbHandle -> exec("SET CHARACTER SET utf8");

// Set error reporting:
$dbHandle->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING);

And this is the code that I use to fetch from the database and loop:

// Require files:
require_once('dbConn.php');

// Get random artist:
$artist = $dbHandle->query("SELECT * FROM ".ARTIST_TABLE." WHERE id = 11 ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 1");
$artist->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);
$artist = $artist->fetch();
var_dump($artist->name);

// Split name:
$artistChars = str_split($artist->name);

I'm connecting with utf-8, my php file is utf-8 without BOM and no other special characters on this page share this issue. What could be wrong, or what am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Mind that the utf8 declaration used in your connect-string is reported to be not working. In the comments on php.net I frequently see this alternative:

$dbHandle = new PDO("mysql:host=$dbHost;dbname=$dbName;charset=utf8", $dbUser, $dbPass,
                    array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES 'utf8'"));

Answer 2

str_split does not work with multi-byte characters, it will only return the first byte - thus invalidating your characters. you could use mb_split.

Answer 3

UTF-8 Using PDO

problems when writing international (even Chinese and Thailandic) characters to the database

there may be more ways to make this work. I am not an expert, just a tech-freak, interested to understand all this. In Linux and Windows I have set up a few CMS (content-managing-systems), using a sample from the following website:

'http://www.elated.com/articles/cms-in-an-afternoon-php-mysql'

The sample is using PDO for insert, update and delete.

It took me a few hours to find a solution. Whatever I did, I always concluded differences between the data in my forms and in the phpmyadmin/heidi -views

I followed the hints of: 'https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/mysql-utf8mb4' but there was still no success

In my CMS-structure there is a file 'Config.php': After reading this webpage I changed the line

    define( 'DB_DSN', 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mythings);

to

    define( 'DB_DSN', 'mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mythings;charset=utf8');

Now all works fine.

Answer 4

The str_split function splits by byte, not by character. You'll need mb_split.

Answer 5

this work for me... hope its usefull.

ensure that the database, apache and every config was in utf8.

PDO OBJECT

            $dsn = 'mysql:host=' . Config::read('db.host') . ';dbname=' . config::read('db.basename') .';charset=utf8'. ';port=' . Config::read('db.port') .';connect_timeout=15';
            $user = Config::read('db.user');
            $password = Config::read('db.password');
            $this->dbh = new PDO($dsn, $user, $password,array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES 'utf8'"));
            $this->dbh->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);

it work if not using another function like str_word_count.

USING str_word_count you need to use utf8_decode(utf8_encode)..

function cortar($str)
{
    if (20>$count=str_word_count($str)) {
        return $str;
    }
    else
    {
        $array = str_word_count($str,1,'.,-0123456789()+=?¿!"<>*ñÑáéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ@|/%$#¡');
        $s='';
        $c=0;
        foreach ($array as $e) {
            if (20>$c) {
                if (19>$c) {
                $s.=$e.' ';
                }
                else
                {
                $s.=$e;
                }               
            }
            $c+=1;
        }
        return utf8_decode(utf8_encode($s));
    }
}

function returs string with 20 words.

Answer 6

UTF-8 PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS by PHP FUNCTIONS

1. How to Save UTF-8 Charterers (mathematical string,special chars like 92 ÷ 8 ÷ 2 = ? ) ?

Ans. $string =utf8_encode('92 ÷ 8 ÷ 2 = ?');

2. How to print UTF-8 Charterers From Database ?

Ans. echo utf8_decode($string);

Note: If you do not want to do this by using encoding/decoding you can do this via.

1. if you are using mysqli_query() then

$conn = mysqli_connect('localhost','db_username','password','your_database_name');
mysqli_set_charset($conn,"utf8"); 

2.If you are using PDO then

class Database extends PDO{
    function __construct() {
        parent::__construct("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=your_db_name","gurutslz_root","Your_db_password",array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES 'utf8'"));
    }
}
$conn=new Database();

Answer 7

I only had issues with text fields in my database structure, storing product descriptions. I set the field settings to blob instead of text, which solved my problem.