How can collation settings in MySQL databases assist in handling special characters for search queries in PHP?

Collation settings in MySQL databases can assist in handling special characters for search queries in PHP by specifying the character set and sorting rules for comparing and sorting strings. By setting the collation to a specific character set that supports special characters, such as utf8mb4_unicode_ci, MySQL can correctly process and compare these characters in search queries. This ensures that search queries involving special characters return accurate results. 

// Set the collation for the MySQL connection to handle special characters
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
$mysqli->set_charset("utf8mb4");

// Perform a search query with special characters
$searchTerm = $mysqli->real_escape_string($_GET['search_term']);
$query = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE column LIKE '%$searchTerm%'";
$result = $mysqli->query($query);

// Process the search results
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
    while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        // Display or process the search results
    }
} else {
    echo "No results found.";
}

$mysqli->close();

Keywords

MySQL collation settings special characters search queries PHP

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