How can PHP developers ensure proper character conversion and sorting when working with UTF8 tables in different languages?
When working with UTF8 tables in different languages, PHP developers can ensure proper character conversion and sorting by setting the correct character encoding, using multibyte string functions for handling UTF8 strings, and utilizing the `COLLATE` clause in SQL queries to specify the collation order.
// Set the character encoding to UTF-8
mysqli_set_charset($connection, "utf8");
// Use multibyte string functions for proper UTF8 handling
mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");
// Query with COLLATE clause for proper sorting
$query = "SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE column_name = 'value' COLLATE utf8_general_ci";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);