Question

I am trying to JSON_encode data from a MySQL database. The characters in the DB are as should.

For example, some of the data contains this: è

When I print out to the browser, this is what I get for all items that have special characters:

{"category":null}

Here is the very basic watered down version of the code I am using to test:

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT category FROM master_cat ORDER BY category ASC");
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql))
        $output[] = $row;

print(json_encode($output));

How can I get actual data to appear in browser when I am reading the JSON on the web page and not null?

Answer 1

You could use utf8_encode on the text fields, but can you check that the data is, indeed, there? Maybe output the data in HTML instead of JSON-encoding it? Because on my system UTF8 is either recognized, gives error, or some characters are truncated.

NULL smells of database data missing.

If the data is there, then:

mysql_query('SET NAMES utf8;');
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT category FROM master_cat ORDER BY category ASC");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($sql))
    $output[] = array_map('utf8_encode', $row);

print(json_encode($output));

You might want to specify explicitly the MIME type and charset too:

Header('Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8');

see What is the correct JSON content type?