Re: utf8 character show as ???
You know, I have the same problem
Im I have set variables in "my.cnf" and it looks like this
[mysqld]
datadir=/var/lib/mysql
socket=/var/lib/mysql/mysql.socket
default-chararcter-set=utf8
default-collation=utf8_general_ci
...
If I check the variables via the prompt, even when set like this, i get the client, connection and results variables set to "latin1". If I check my tables with foreign characters you get blank spaces intead of ?.
If you set this variable sin the mysql prompt, they do change (already tried setting them in the my.cnf and nothing).
You can do it like this:
mysql> SET character_set_client = utf8
-> SET character_set_connection = utf8
-> SET character_set_results = utf8;
If you do this, you will be able to see results with the foreign character BUT at least I am unable to GET the results.
Another strange fact
If I use phpmyadmin, even if I don't set this variables to utf8, it appears to be utf8 in the charsets section (obviously, if you try the SHOW VARIABLES in the mysql prompt you WON'T get this same result) and that is strange.
This has been happening recently (when I reinstalled the same version, 4.1.11, of mysql to Fedora Core 3) and I have been unable to do something.
I have already set the default charset of apache2 and php5 to utf8 and have the same problem in windows and linux.
Don't know what else to try...