Question

I know this sounds really silly but what character encoding should I use for something that looks like this in UTF-8

�� Ã�¼Ã��Ã�½Ã�±Ã�¼Ã�Â

The website is in English. This is something user generated content which is stored in the database that is utf_general_ci and displayed on the screen . I just want to display it properly. What do I have to do ?

OK this is what the original text was something like

I αм iиvisibłє łiкє αiя—
I αм αs iмρøяŧαиŧ αs øxygєи—
I αм łiviиg iи ŧЋє wøяłd øƒ мy dяєαмz
I αм αłwαys ŧЋєяє ŧø Ћєłρ øŧЋєяz—
I αм busy buŧ иєvєя igиøяє αиy øиє
I αм ŧЋє øиє wЋø cαяєz—
I łøvє ŧø sєє øŧЋєя łαugЋiиg
I αм ŧЋє øиє wЋø bøяяøw øŧЋєяz søяяøw
I αм ŧЋє øиє wЋøz иαugЋŧy buŧ иicє
I αм łøsŧ iи мy ŧЋøugЋŧs—
I łøvє ŧø ŧαłк—
I łøvє ŧø sЋαяє—
I αм яєαdy ŧø gø αиy wЋєяє—
I łøvє ŧø ƒły buŧ døи’ŧ Ћαvє wiиgs—
I wαиŧ ŧøø ŧøucЋ ŧЋє sкy łiмiŧs—
I αм єvił buŧ иøŧ dєvił—
I иєvєя ƒøłłøw αиy ŧяєиd—
I αм ƒuиłøviиg—
suм ŧiмє łøvє ŧø bє αłøиє—
I łøvє ŧø łivє—

Answer 1

Using UTF-8 is just fine, but here is few checkpoints.

If you are using MySQL, set database/tables/fields collations in utf8_unicode_ci

and If you are using php, do mysql_query('SET NAMES utf8'); before query

and in HTML output use

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />