What considerations should be taken into account regarding character encoding when working with PHP scripts and database data containing special characters?

When working with PHP scripts and database data containing special characters, it is important to ensure that the character encoding is consistent across all components. This includes setting the appropriate character encoding in both the database connection and the PHP script. Failure to do so can result in garbled or corrupted data being displayed.

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

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