How to Avoid Question Marks When Storing Arabic Data in MySQL?

How to Properly Save Arabic Data in MySQL Database

Storing Arabic text in a MySQL database can pose challenges if the necessary character encodings and collations are not configured correctly.

Common Issue: Seeing Question Marks Instead of Arabic

If you encounter question marks (????) when retrieving Arabic text from your database, it could be due to:

• Incorrect character set and collation settings for the database, table, or column
• Manual insertion of Arabic text without ensuring the correct encoding

Solutions:

Checking and Setting Correct Character Set and Collation:

• Verify that the database, table, and column have the UTF-8 character set and UTF-8 general_ci collation.

  • Use the following SQL commands to check:

    • For Database:

      SELECT default_character_set_name FROM information_schema.SCHEMATA S
      WHERE schema_name = "schemaname";

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    • For 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 = "schemaname"
      AND T.table_name = "tablename";

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    • For Column:

      SELECT character_set_name FROM information_schema.`COLUMNS` C
      WHERE table_schema = "schemaname"
      AND table_name = "tablename"
      AND column_name = "columnname";

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  • Set the correct character set and collation if necessary:

    • For Database:

      ALTER DATABASE databasename CHARACTER SET = utf8 COLLATE = utf8_general_ci;

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    • For Table:

      ALTER TABLE tablename CONVERT TO CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

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    • For Column:

      ALTER TABLE tablename MODIFY columnname VARCHAR(50) CHARACTER SET utf8;

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Manual Insertion of Arabic Data:

• Ensure that the Arabic text is encoded in UTF-8 when manually inserting it.
• Escape any special characters (e.g., apostrophes) in the Arabic text using backslashes.

By following these steps, you can properly store and retrieve Arabic data in your MySQL database, ensuring accurate representation without any question mark characters.

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