Arabic text in mysql Varchar row

[Mark Webley]

Hello

Does anyone out there have any idea of how to solve the following:

I am inserting a 'title' and 'description' into mysql with the same single query for a tabled named 'user'. But the cell named 'title' set as varchar(255) always comes out wrong.

I HAVE A TABLE ROW named 'description' as longtext
that WORKS perfectly FOR ARABIC TEXT (and I can see the Arabic text clearly in the database for this row)

BUT the other cell named 'title' in the same row VARCHAR(255) does not work....

For example for a cell named title with VARCHAR(255),
the Arabic text always comes out as ???????????? when I insert the data via php.

When I cut and past Arabic text straight into the database cell named 'title' using navicat...I see the Arabic text perfectly.

Just before the insert into mysql, I echo the query to the browser and the Arabic text looks perfect.

But it is still inserting garbage '????????????' into the database, but only for the cell named 'title'...for Arabic text.

On db connect I have:
self::$conn = new MySQLI(localhost, username, password, databasename);

// to help with arabic characters
self::$conn->query("SET CHARACTER SET 'utf8'");
self::$conn->query("SET NAMES utf8");

To test I did the msyql query below:
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%version%';
HOW VARIABLES LIKE '%version%';

and the results are:
+--------------------------+------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+------------------------------+
| character_set_client | utf8 |
| character_set_connection | utf8 |
| character_set_database | utf8 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8 |
| character_set_server | latin1 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | \xampp\mysql\share\charsets\ |
| collation_connection | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_database | utf8_general_ci |
| collation_server | latin1_swedish_ci |
| completion_type | 0 |
| concurrent_insert | 1 |
| connect_timeout | 10 |
+--------------------------+------------------------------+
14 rows in set

+-------------------------+---------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+-------------------------+---------------------+
| protocol_version | 10 |
| version | 5.1.41 |
| version_comment | Source distribution |
| version_compile_machine | ia32 |
| version_compile_os | Win32 |
+-------------------------+---------------------+

the details of the table is described below after the below query:
describe user;

+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-----------------------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-----------------------------+
| id | int(11) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment |
| company | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | |
| title | varchar(255) | YES | | NULL | ||
| description | longtext | YES | | NULL | |
+------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-----------------------------+


I am using XAMP on windows. PHP 5 and mysql version:

SHOW VARIABLES LIKE '%version%';
+-------------------------+---------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+-------------------------+---------------------+
| protocol_version | 10 |
| version | 5.1.41 |
| version_comment | Source distribution |
| version_compile_machine | ia32 |
| version_compile_os | Win32 |
+-------------------------+---------------------+


I spent more then 10 hours trying and testing and did PHP code tests with utf8_encoding() and utf8_decoding()...and only the Arabic text for 'title' is comes wrong...in my brower and also in the database, does anyone have any ideas...?

Thank you in advance... ?


Mark W
In Barcelona
www.adobeconsultant.co.uk