How to convert UTF-8 and ISO-8859-1 strings in PHP?

Converting UTF-8 and ISO-88591 in PHP

When scripts with different encodings require interaction, it becomes crucial to convert characters between different formats. PHP provides several functions to facilitate such conversions.

Converting UTF-8 to ISO-88591

To convert a UTF-8 string to ISO-88591, you can use the iconv() or mb_convert_encoding() functions. These functions require specific extensions: ext/iconv for iconv() and ext/mbstring for mb_convert_encoding().

<code class="php">$utf8 = 'ÄÖÜ'; // in a UTF-8 encoded file

// Using iconv()
$iso88591 = iconv('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1', $utf8);

// Using mb_convert_encoding()
$iso88591 = mb_convert_encoding($utf8, 'ISO-8859-1', 'UTF-8');</code>

Converting ISO-88591 to UTF-8

To convert an ISO-88591 string to UTF-8, you can also use iconv() or mb_convert_encoding().

<code class="php">$iso88591 = 'ÄÖÜ'; // in an ISO-8859-1 encoded file

// Using iconv()
$utf8 = iconv('ISO-8859-1', 'UTF-8', $iso88591);

// Using mb_convert_encoding()
$utf8 = mb_convert_encoding($iso88591, 'UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-1');</code>

An Alternative: utf8_encode() and utf8_decode()

The utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() functions may not be suitable for your specific scenario because:

• utf8_decode() converts ISO-8859-1 characters encoded with UTF-8 to single-byte ISO-8859-1, which may not be what you want.
• utf8_encode() encodes ISO-8859-1 strings to UTF-8, whereas you need the reverse conversion.

Therefore, using iconv() or mb_convert_encoding() is more appropriate for converting between UTF-8 and ISO-88591.

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