Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

**Jerry Stuckle** · Jul 11 '06, 12:05 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
output:
>
(where the quotes are i get a question mark)
What I'm getting:
>
ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquer?a - Antonio Moreno
AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
BERGS - Berglunds snabbk?p - Christina Berglund
>
>
What I should get:
>
ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquería - Antonio Moreno
AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
BERGS - Berglunds snabbköp - Christina Berglund
>

What charset are you using for your page? And what does the page source
show?

Probably alt.html might have been a better group to start, but this one
is a logical choice.

--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

**eugenio@iatmgu.com** · Jul 11 '06, 01:25 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

Thanks for the reply....

I've tried utf-8 and ISO 8859-1 but I either get empty squares or
question marks.
The html source shows question marks as well. I'm guessing, but I think
the problem may be that the mssql module is not able to handle the
chars or something with the apache config. When I run the same script
on win2k3 server with php and iis6 the characters show without a
problem.

Jerry Stuckle wrote:

eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
output:

(where the quotes are i get a question mark)
What I'm getting:

ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquer?a - Antonio Moreno
AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
BERGS - Berglunds snabbk?p - Christina Berglund

What I should get:

ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquería - Antonio Moreno
AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
BERGS - Berglunds snabbköp - Christina Berglund

>
What charset are you using for your page? And what does the page source
show?
>
Probably alt.html might have been a better group to start, but this one
is a logical choice.
>
--
=============== ===
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attgl obal.net
=============== ===

**Mel** · Jul 11 '06, 02:05 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

On 2006-07-11 23:25:45 +1000, eugenio@iatmgu. com said:

Thanks for the reply....
>
I've tried utf-8 and ISO 8859-1 but I either get empty squares or
question marks.
The html source shows question marks as well. I'm guessing, but I think
the problem may be that the mssql module is not able to handle the
chars or something with the apache config. When I run the same script
on win2k3 server with php and iis6 the characters show without a
problem.
>
Jerry Stuckle wrote:

>eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

>>Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
>>don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
>>linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
>>functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
>>data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
>>strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
>>output:
>>>
>>(where the quotes are i get a question mark)
>>What I'm getting:
>>>
>>ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
>>ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
>>ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquer?a - Antonio Moreno
>>AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
>>BERGS - Berglunds snabbk?p - Christina Berglund
>>>
>>>
>>What I should get:
>>>
>>ALFKI - Alfreds Futterkiste - Maria Anders
>>ANATR - Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados - Ana Trujillo
>>ANTON - Antonio Moreno Taquería - Antonio Moreno
>>AROUT - Around the Horn - Thomas Hardy
>>BERGS - Berglunds snabbköp - Christina Berglund
>>>

>>
>What charset are you using for your page? And what does the page source
>show?
>>
>Probably alt.html might have been a better group to start, but this one
>is a logical choice.
>>
>--
>============== === Remove the "x" from my email address
>Jerry Stuckle
>JDS Computer Training Corp.
>jstucklex@attgl obal.net
>============== ===

Grasping at straws, but have you checked the collation setting on the
MSSQL server?

**Chung Leong** · Jul 11 '06, 02:05 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
output:

The text columns in the Northwind database are all nvarchar/ntext--i.e.
Unicode. These have to be flatten into an 8-bit encoding, since the
libraries used by the mssql extension can't handle Unicode (nor can PHP
itself for that matter).

On Windows, I believe the encoding is determined by the current locale.
On Linux, it's set in freetds.conf.

**deciacco** · Jul 11 '06, 02:55 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

Thank you all for the reply...

How do I flatten into an 8-bit encoding...?

Chung Leong wrote:

eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
output:

>
The text columns in the Northwind database are all nvarchar/ntext--i.e.
Unicode. These have to be flatten into an 8-bit encoding, since the
libraries used by the mssql extension can't handle Unicode (nor can PHP
itself for that matter).
>
On Windows, I believe the encoding is determined by the current locale.
On Linux, it's set in freetds.conf.

**deciacco** · Jul 11 '06, 03:25 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

Discovered more information:

I changed my code from using
$dbh = DB::connect("ms sql://sa:password@192 .168.0.1/northwind"); to
simply using the freetds connection

putenv("FREETDS CONF=/etc/freetds.conf");
$db=mssql_conne ct("MyServer2k" ,"sa","password ");

(freetds.conf setting)
[MyServer2k]
host = 192.168.0.1
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0

when the script runs now I get this error:

Warning: mssql_query() [function.mssql-query]: WARNING! Some
character(s) could not be converted into client's character set.
Unconverted bytes were changed to question marks ('?'). (severity 16)
in /var/www/test/testing/index.php on line 31

Same problem just wanted to add to it for other to see.

deciacco wrote:

Thank you all for the reply...
>
How do I flatten into an 8-bit encoding...?
>
>
Chung Leong wrote:

eugenio@iatmgu. com wrote:

Hi...not sure if this is the right group for this posting, but i'm
don't know where else to post. I've got a simple problem...I have a
linux box running apache 2.0 and php5. I'm trying to use the mssql
functions in php to retreive data from a mssql server 2k. I'm pulling
data from the customers table in the northwind db and i'm getting
strange characters instead of special characters. Below is a sample
output:

The text columns in the Northwind database are all nvarchar/ntext--i.e.
Unicode. These have to be flatten into an 8-bit encoding, since the
libraries used by the mssql extension can't handle Unicode (nor can PHP
itself for that matter).

On Windows, I believe the encoding is determined by the current locale.
On Linux, it's set in freetds.conf.

**Chung Leong** · Jul 11 '06, 03:55 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

deciacco wrote:

Discovered more information:
>
I changed my code from using
$dbh = DB::connect("ms sql://sa:password@192 .168.0.1/northwind"); to
simply using the freetds connection
>
putenv("FREETDS CONF=/etc/freetds.conf");
$db=mssql_conne ct("MyServer2k" ,"sa","password ");
>
(freetds.conf setting)
[MyServer2k]
host = 192.168.0.1
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0
>

Try adding the line

client charset = cp1250

or
client charset = utf8

**deciacco** · Jul 11 '06, 04:05 PM

Re: Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

That did it!!!

I don't quite understand how it works or why I needed to use the php
function putenv() but it works...

I added the line marked by -->

[MyServer2k]
host = 192.168.0.1
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0
-- client charset = UTF-8

and I went back to using PEAR:

$dbh = DB::connect("ms sql://sa:password@MyS erver2K/northwind");

Thank you!!

Chung Leong wrote:

deciacco wrote:

Discovered more information:

I changed my code from using
$dbh = DB::connect("ms sql://sa:password@192 .168.0.1/northwind"); to
simply using the freetds connection

putenv("FREETDS CONF=/etc/freetds.conf");
$db=mssql_conne ct("MyServer2k" ,"sa","password ");

(freetds.conf setting)
[MyServer2k]
host = 192.168.0.1
port = 1433
tds version = 8.0

>
Try adding the line
>
client charset = cp1250
>
or
client charset = utf8

Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

Php retreiving data from mssql and special characters

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment