SET NAMES utf8 in MySQL?

Question

I often see something similar to this below in PHP scripts using MySQL

query(\"SET NAMES utf8\");   

I have never had to do this for any pr

Answer 1

Instead of doing this via an SQL query use the php function: mysqli::set_charset mysqli_set_charset

Note:

This is the preferred way to change the charset. Using mysqli_query() to set it (such as SET NAMES utf8) is not recommended.

See the MySQL character set concepts section for more information.

from http://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.set-charset.php

Answer 2

Not only PDO. If sql answer like '????' symbols, preset of you charset (hope UTF-8) really recommended:

if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) 
 { printf("Can't set utf8: %s\n", $mysqli->error); }

or via procedure style mysqli_set_charset($db,"utf8")