Re: Replacing a special character

Thanks for the advice. I've changed the code to use mysql_real_escape_string. So now it is $name = mysql_real_escape_string($name); preg_replace('/&#8722;/','-',$name); but it's still not replacing the &#8722; string. I've also changed the field in the database so that now it is using the collation utf8_general_ci. I've also tried preg_replace('/−/','-',$name); $name = mysql_real_escape_string($name); preg_replace('/&#8722;/','-',$name); and that also did not work. Any ideas? Michael On Apr 18, 2010, at 1:08 PM, Michiel Sikma wrote: > On 18 April 2010 16:46, Peter Lind <peter.e.lind@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 18 April 2010 16:40, Phpster <phpster@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>> >>> On Apr 18, 2010, at 8:59 AM, Michael Stroh <stroh@astroh.org> wrote: >>> >>>> I have this form that people use to add entries into a MySQL database. >>>> Recently I've had some users insert − in their entries instead of - >> which is >>>> causing some issues with scripts down the line. I'd like to replace the >> − >>>> character with -. >>>> >>>> Originally I had something like >>>> >>>> $name = mysql_escape_string($_POST["name"]); >>>> >>>> which would convert the offending character to &#8722; before entering >> it >>>> into the database. It's this encoding that is causing the problems since >>>> some scripts send out emails with this entry in their subject line which >>>> looks messy. >>>> >>>> I've tried adding the following line after the previous line to help fix >>>> this issue, however, I just got another entry with the same problem. >>>> >>>> preg_replace('/&#8722;/','-',$name); >>>> >>>> Any suggestions on how others would fix this problem? I'd just like to >> fix >>>> it before the entry hits the database instead of creating fixes on the >> other >>>> end of things. >>>> >>>> >>>> Cheers, >>>> Michael >>>> -- >>>> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) >>>> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php >>>> >>> >>> One option is to send an HTML email which would have the email reader >>> interpret that code correctly >>> >>> Bastien >> >> Another option would be to use mysql_real_escape_string and make sure >> that your code and the database are using utf-8. Then when the email >> is sent, make sure that uses utf-8 as well. >> >> Regards >> Peter >> >> > Make sure the database connection is also utf8: > > set names 'utf8'; > > Typically, you should keep everything in utf8 unless you have a very good > reason not to. > And as Peter mentioned, the proper way to escape MySQL inserts (that is, if > you're not already using a framework that does this competently) is > mysql_real_escape_string(). > > Michiel