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

I test this code and

$db=new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=cwDB','root','',
array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8"));
$sql="select * from products  ";
$stmt=$db->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute();
while($result=$stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)){                  
    $id=$result['id'];
}

Answer 2

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");

Answer 3

$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$host;dbname=$db;charset=utf8", $user, $pass);