What are some recommended methods for detecting and converting character encoding issues, like those encountered with special characters, in PHP scripts?

Character encoding issues can occur when special characters are not properly encoded or decoded in PHP scripts. To detect and convert these encoding issues, you can use functions like mb_detect_encoding() to identify the encoding of a string and mb_convert_encoding() to convert it to the desired encoding.

// Detect encoding of a string
$encoding = mb_detect_encoding($string, mb_detect_order(), true);

// Convert string to UTF-8 encoding
$utf8_string = mb_convert_encoding($string, 'UTF-8', $encoding);