What are common issues with UTF-8 encoding in PHP when using Ajax to submit form data to a MySQL database?

Common issues with UTF-8 encoding in PHP when using Ajax to submit form data to a MySQL database include garbled characters or incorrect data storage due to mismatched character encoding settings. To solve this, ensure that your PHP file, MySQL database, and Ajax request all use UTF-8 encoding consistently.

// Set UTF-8 encoding for PHP file
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

// Set UTF-8 encoding for MySQL connection
mysqli_set_charset($connection, 'utf8');

// Set UTF-8 encoding for Ajax request
$.ajax({
    url: 'submit_form.php',
    type: 'POST',
    data: {
        data: $('#form_data').val()
    },
    contentType: 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8',
    success: function(response) {
        console.log('Form data submitted successfully');
    }
});