php man page for mysqli_set_charset

MYSQLI_SET_CHARSET(3)							 1						     MYSQLI_SET_CHARSET(3)

mysqli::set_charset - Sets the default client character set

       Object oriented style

SYNOPSIS
       bool mysqli::set_charset (string  $charset)

DESCRIPTION
       Procedural style
       bool mysqli_set_charset (mysqli	$link, string  $charset)

	Sets the default character set to be used when sending data from and to the database server.

PARAMETERS
	      o $
		link -Procedural style only: A link identifier returned by mysqli_connect(3) or mysqli_init(3)

	      o $charset
		- The charset to be set as default.

RETURN VALUES
	Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

NOTES
       Note

	       To  use	this function on a Windows platform you need MySQL client library version 4.1.11 or above (for MySQL 5.0 you need 5.0.6 or
	      above).

       Note

	       This is the preferred way to change the charset. Using mysqli_query(3) to set it (such as SET NAMES utf8) is not  recommended.  See
	      the MySQL character set concepts section for more information.

EXAMPLES
       Example #1

	      mysqli::set_charset example

	      Object oriented style

	      <?php
	      $mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "my_user", "my_password", "test");

	      /* check connection */
	      if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
		  printf("Connect failed: %s
", mysqli_connect_error());
		  exit();
	      }

	      /* change character set to utf8 */
	      if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {
		  printf("Error loading character set utf8: %s
", $mysqli->error);
	      } else {
		  printf("Current character set: %s
", $mysqli->character_set_name());
	      }

	      $mysqli->close();
	      ?>

	      Procedural style

	      <?php
	      $link = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'my_user', 'my_password', 'test');

	      /* check connection */
	      if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
		  printf("Connect failed: %s
", mysqli_connect_error());
		  exit();
	      }

	      /* change character set to utf8 */
	      if (!mysqli_set_charset($link, "utf8")) {
		  printf("Error loading character set utf8: %s
", mysqli_error($link));
	      } else {
		  printf("Current character set: %s
", mysqli_character_set_name($link));
	      }

	      mysqli_close($link);
	      ?>

	      The above examples will output:

	      Current character set: utf8

SEE ALSO
       mysqli_character_set_name(3), mysqli_real_escape_string(3), List of character sets that MySQL supports.

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