php with special characters like ñ

Question

At first I thought the problem was when I return echo json_encode($row) from an ajax call that results with ñ are changed to NULL. But after testing I found out that the problem

Answer 1

Face the same issue with the string "CASTAÑO".

I've tried posted solutions.

I used the ini_set('default_charset', 'utf-8'); directive.

• The selected record showed "CASTA�O"
• Using utf8-decode showed "CASTA?O"
• Using utf8_encode shows the proper string "CASTAÑO"