Php and database problem in outputting russian language characters properly

Guys I'm using the code below to retrieve data from the database

$lang_cat_table=mysql_query("select * from lang_cat_title where ID='$category_id'");

PHP:

It is working fine for English, but not for Russian language. How can I fix this up.?

I found this trick on php.net ,.but..to be frank I don't know how to implement this on my page.

Could you help me implement this code with my query and also to set charset to utf8.

if (!function_exists('mysql_set_charset')) {
  function mysql_set_charset($charset,$dbh)
  {
    return mysql_query("set names $charset",$dbh);
  }
}

PHP:

Please let me know if you are using any other way to output Russian characters on page,I appreciate you help.Thanks

 

You must have initiated a connection with db before executing the query

Just apply the function on it

 

this is the code you need:
mysql_query("set names utf8");
$lang_cat_table=mysql_query("select * from lang_cat_title where ID='$category_id'");

 

That helped popol but the characters are appearing strange ( not question marks ) on internet explorer .Its perfectly fine on firefox

 

well, that's not a server side(PHP) issue anymore.. it's a browser issue.. try searching in google for russian fonts, install it on you machine, then test again..

 

Hi popol, when i rechecked my page on firefox the russian characters are appearing strange as it was appearing on IE before, I think its not the fault with browser too. I can see the russian characters on other pages and I'm wondering why it isn't proper only on my pages.

BTW I even checked using "set character set utf8" . Even it didn't work

 

I tried setting fonts and languages in firefox to support russian but nothing seems to be changed.

 

Its working fine now with

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">

PHP:

in header and

mysql_query("set names 'utf8'"); before query.

PHP:

Thanks POPOL and forgive me for annoying you through PMing .

 

You are right but only once once after connecting to database. It is not required before every query.