Multibyte String Functions in UTF-8 Encoding

∟Multibyte String Functions in UTF-8 Encoding

This chapter provides tutorial notes on using PHP multibyte string functions on Chinese character strings. Topics include loading php_mbstring.dll module; setting multibyte string functions for UTF-8 encoding; counting number of Chinese characters with mb_strlen().

php_mbstring.dll - Multibyte String Extension

mb_strlen() - Counting Multibyte Characters

List of Multibyte String Functions

Takeaways:

Chinese characters are stored in PHP variables as sequences of bytes. 1 Chinese character could be mapped to 2, 3 or 4 bytes, depending on the encoding used.
Normal PHP str*() functions can on only manage sting variables at the byte level.
You need to use mb_*() functions from the "mbstring" extension to manage string variables at the character level.
mb_*() functions are available, only if you turn on the "mbstring" extension in the php.ini configuration file.

Table of Contents

About This Book

PHP Installation on Windows Systems

Integrating PHP with Apache Web Server

charset="*" - Encodings on Chinese Web Pages

Chinese Characters in PHP String Literals

►Multibyte String Functions in UTF-8 Encoding

Input Text Data from Web Forms

Input Chinese Text Data from Web Forms

MySQL - Installation on Windows

MySQL - Connecting PHP to Database

MySQL - Character Set and Encoding

MySQL - Sending Non-ASCII Text to MySQL

Retrieving Chinese Text from Database to Web Pages

Input Chinese Text Data to MySQL Database

Chinese Text Encoding Conversion and Corruptions

Archived Tutorials

References

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