What role does the database collation play in handling Umlaut characters in PHP applications?

The database collation plays a crucial role in handling Umlaut characters in PHP applications as it determines how the database sorts and compares characters. To properly handle Umlaut characters, make sure the database collation is set to a Unicode-compatible collation such as utf8_general_ci.

// Set the database collation to utf8_general_ci
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
$mysqli->set_charset("utf8");
$mysqli->query("SET collation_connection = utf8_general_ci");