Resolving incorrect character encoding when displaying MySQL database results after upgrade to PHP 5.3

Question

Issue Description

After upgrading PHP on our development server from 5.2 to 5.3, we\'re encountering an issue where data requested from our database and displayed

Answer 1

I had similar issue after upgrading PHP from 5.2.3 to 5.3.5 (5.3.5-Win32-VC6-x86), MySQL 5.0.41 (not updated). I think that reason is a little difference between PHP versions.

PHP 5.2.3 default (without SET NAMES):
character_set_client = latin1
character_set_connection = latin1
character_set_database = utf8
character_set_filesystem = binary
character_set_results = latin1
character_set_server = latin2
character_set_system = utf8
collation_connection = latin1_swedish_ci
collation_database = utf8_polish_ci
collation_server = latin2_general_ci

PHP 5.3.5 default (without SET NAMES):
character_set_client = latin2
character_set_connection = latin2
character_set_database = utf8
character_set_filesystem = binary
character_set_results = latin2
character_set_server = latin2
character_set_system = utf8
collation_connection = latin2_general_ci
collation_database = utf8_polish_ci
collation_server = latin2_general_ci

I added data to database in PHP 5.2.3 default (without SET NAMES), so now to display it correctly I must read it using:

$pdo -> query("SET NAMES 'latin1'");

Maybe something similar is reason of your problem.