setting character set

[jimfog]

Whenever I make a connection to the db and perform whether this an update, a select or an insert I always set the chaset to utf8, like this:

$connection->set_charset("utf8");

The question is the above needed in every kind of query.Is it needed for example in a SELECT statement where we do not put in the db?

[justsomeguy]

It's needed if the server default is not UTF-8 and you want data returned as UTF-8.

[jimfog]

I just saw that in PHPMyAdmin,as a server connection collation, is mentioned utf_8_general_ci.

Given that, do you still think the line of code showed above is needed?

[justsomeguy]

If you want to use that value for the connection collation then you don't need to change the character set.

[jimfog]

Sorry I did not quite understand your answer.

I suppose you mean that if I want to stick with what the server has already as collation I should NOT use the code I list above.

 

Is that what you mean/

[justsomeguy]

Right, if you want to use the default then there's no reason to change it.