Why are my Arabic characters showing as question marks in my MySQL database?

Saving Arabic Data in MySQL Database

Issue: When attempting to insert Arabic text into a MySQL database, the text appears as question marks.

Diagnosis:

The issue arises when the database, table, or column character set and collation are not set to support Arabic characters. By default, MySQL uses the Latin1 character set, which does not include Arabic characters.

Solution:

To resolve this issue, it is crucial to ensure that the database, table, and column are configured with the appropriate character set and collation for Arabic data.

Steps:

1. Check the character set and collation of the database, table, and column:

   • For the database:

     SELECT default_character_set_name FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA WHERE schema_name = "your_database_name";

   • For the table:

     SELECT CCSA.character_set_name FROM information_schema.`TABLES` T, information_schema.`COLLATION_CHARACTER_SET_APPLICABILITY` CCSA
     WHERE CCSA.collation_name = T.table_collation AND T.table_schema = "your_database_name" AND T.table_name = "your_table_name";

   • For the column:

     SELECT character_set_name FROM information_schema.`COLUMNS` C
     WHERE table_schema = "your_database_name" AND table_name = "your_table_name" AND column_name = "your_column_name";

2. Set the character set and collation to utf8 and utf8_general_ci:

   • For the database:

     ALTER DATABASE your_database_name CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

   • For the table:

     ALTER TABLE your_table_name CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

   • For the column:

     ALTER TABLE your_table_name MODIFY your_column_name VARCHAR(50) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

3. Manually insert Arabic data into the database:

   • Use an editor like phpMyAdmin or SQLyog that supports UTF-8 character encoding.
   • Check that the character set and collation for your editor and the database are set to utf8_general_ci.
   • Enter Arabic characters directly into the text fields of the database interface.

By ensuring that the database, table, and column character set and collation are set to support Arabic characters, you can successfully store and retrieve Arabic data in your MySQL database.

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