PHP PDO: charset, set names?

Question

I had this previously in my normal mysql_* connection:

mysql_set_charset(\"utf8\",$link);
mysql_query(\"SET NAMES \'UTF8\'\");

Do I need it

Answer 1

You'll have it in your connection string like:

"mysql:host=$host;dbname=$db;charset=utf8"

HOWEVER, prior to PHP 5.3.6, the charset option was ignored. If you're running an older version of PHP, you must do it like this:

$dbh = new PDO("mysql:$connstr",  $user, $password);
$dbh->exec("set names utf8");