PHP MySQLi mysqli_set_charset() - Setting the Character Set

mysqli_set_charset()

The mysqli_set_charset() function sets the default character set for communication between the PHP script and the MySQL server. This is crucial for properly handling text with special characters.

EXAMPLE

<?php
$server = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "";
$database = "mysqli_database";

$connection = mysqli_connect($server, $username, $password, $database);

if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    echo "Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error();
    exit();
}

// Display the initial character set default on the server (e.g., latin1)
echo "Initial character set: " . mysqli_character_set_name($connection) . "<br>";

// Set the charset to utf8mb4 for full and secure support for non-English characters
// NOTE: Always use the utf8mb4 charset instead of the older utf8, as utf8mb4 
// supports full 4-byte characters, which includes all exotic symbols and emojis. 
// It is recommended to call this function immediately after mysqli_connect().
if (!mysqli_set_charset($connection, "utf8mb4")) {
    printf("Error loading character set utf8mb4: %s<br>", mysqli_error($connection));
    exit();
} else {
    echo "Current character set: " . mysqli_character_set_name($connection);
}

mysqli_close($connection);
?>

RESULT

The result will be displayed here...

Practical use: For handling special characters (and modern websites in general), using the utf8mb4 character set is highly recommended. This ensures that diacritics, emojis, and other special characters are stored in and retrieved from the database without errors.

Prevents issues with unreadable characters (e.g., question marks instead of special characters).

A better alternative than executing the SQL command SET NAMES.

Always call it immediately after establishing a connection to the database.