Re: utf-8 ?

Nathan Rixham wrote: > PJ wrote: >> Since I have to use a number of Western languages that have those >> annoying accents on many characters, I am already finding some >> annoyances in my code results; like having to enter the á type of >> stuff in inputs for searches & queries. >> MySql db is set up for InnoDB with latin1_swedish_ci for Collation; I >> believe this is default. > > in that case you'd have to convert all your databases to utf8 / > utf_general_ci > >> Utf-8 seems to be one way to overcome the problems, but is it the only >> way - seems a little cumbersome as I have no need for oriental & other >> extra-terrestrial cyphers. (I'm incorrigibly lazy.) > > can't think of any good reason why you shouldn't be using utf-8.. > >> If it is the only way, what difficulties could I expect from an ISP >> hosting a virtual site? > > none really AFAIK - but converting all your latin1 to utf-8 will be a > very fun job indeed! > I looked at http://developer.loftdigital.com/blog/php-utf-8-cheatsheet which suggests this: ALTER DATABASE db_name CHARACTER SET utf8 DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci DEFAULT COLLATE utf8_general_ci ; ALTER TABLE tbl_name DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci ; or I could do it with phpMyAdmin, right? and the only difficulties would appear to be fixing any accent stuff (don't know yet just what) and that would only be time consuming. I guess I'm just looking for reassurance that I don't muck up anything and then have to do tortured acrobatics to redress things again. :-) -- Hervé Kempf: "Pour sauver la planète, sortez du capitalisme." ------------------------------------------------------------- Phil Jourdan --- pj@ptahhotep.com http://www.ptahhotep.com http://www.chiccantine.com/andypantry.php