Using PHP provides a uniquely working solution. If something is not displayed somewhere, there are no syntax or semantic errors, then the problem will lie in the character encoding used. Other conflicts are possible, but violations of information encoding rules are the most frequent.
General reporting rule
The encoding of the file that contains the PHP script always matters. If there is no problem with displaying the source text in the development environment or in a regular text editor, and you can’t read anything in the browser, you should not immediately contact the PHP iconv function. You just need to fix the lines:
- "META charset =" UTF-8 "" or charset = "windows-1251";
- "META HTTP-EQUIV =" Content-Language "CONTENT =" en, ru "."
This is a simple rule, usually there are no problems in this context: if the PHP code is displayed correctly in the development environment (Cyrillic), then it will be readable in the browser. Even a low-skilled programmer will be able to fine-tune everything as it should.
PHP code is text processing. Often a programmer forgets that one character is not always one byte. If the site is devoted to mathematical calculations, and the Cyrillic alphabet is used in the derivation of results, collisions are possible. This is solved by using the iconv () function in the PHP code of the page.
If a database is used in the processing of information, then the information may simply be "lost". In reality, everything is there and everything works, you just need to make the proper transformations.
The above examples show how easy it is to convert strings from one encoding to another using the PHP function iconv (). It doesn’t matter in which register to write the standard notation for encodings, but the meaning of using the function must be correct.
Before performing the conversion, you need to know:
- from which encoding;
- what encoding.
The last example shows how iconv is used to visualize the execution of an external dir command executed in Windows 10. The results of the command are returned back to the place of the call where PHP iconv () transformed them from CP866 to UTF-8, and they correctly displayed in the browser.
In all these cases, the function provided the opportunity to obtain information in a readable form.
Work with the database
When working with a database, it may happen that PHP iconv does not work. The programmer spends precious hours of working time, but the query results simply are not displayed or are placed in the database in an unreadable form.
The problem is solved simply. If the request is executed without errors, it means that the encoding of the database and the page code are to blame. Usually this is enough, if not, you need to check the encoding of the HTML page, PHP code and database. The problem will be solved.
A characteristic feature: there are a lot of encodings, the conditions for the execution of the work are multifaceted, but if you check everything once and ensure compatibility, the result will be completely readable, and the work of the web resource will be impeccable.