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

$con="";
$MODE="";
$dbhost = "localhost";
$dbuser = "root";
$dbpassword = "";
$database = "name";

$con = new PDO ( "mysql:host=$dbhost;dbname=$database", "$dbuser", "$dbpassword", array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));
$con->setAttribute ( PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION );