How can one troubleshoot and debug issues related to incorrect encoding or handling of special characters in PHP scripts that interact with MySQL databases?

One common issue with handling special characters in PHP scripts interacting with MySQL databases is incorrect encoding. To troubleshoot this issue, ensure that both the PHP script and the MySQL database are using the same character encoding, such as UTF-8. Additionally, use functions like utf8_encode() and utf8_decode() to properly handle special characters in your PHP scripts. 

// Set the character encoding for the database connection
mysqli_set_charset($connection, 'utf8');

// Encode special characters before inserting into the database
$special_chars = utf8_encode($special_chars);

// Decode special characters after retrieving from the database
$special_chars = utf8_decode($special_chars);

Keywords

UTF-8 mb_detect_encoding htmlspecialchars mysqli_real_escape_string character encoding

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