Can not search arabic in mysql Quran Database with php

Question

I am newbie in web programming so I do apologize if I say something wrong. I am writing a simple php script to search in an Arabic mysql DB (Quran database from this website http://qurandatabase.org/Database.aspx - mysql query file format - Arabic(Original)) but I have a very simple problem, which is what I receive by GET method in my php script is not what I entered to search and something add some unwanted Arabic character to my searched string. my codes and out puts are as follows: my html code is: ``` ``` my php code is: ```

Accepted Answer

The difference between مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ and مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ is that a non-printable character is in a different place. Depending on the collation you are using this makes the strings equal or different in MySQL, affecting the query results:

```
mysql> select 'مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ' = 'مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ' collate utf8_general_ci general;
+---------+
| general |
+---------+
|       0 |
+---------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select 'مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ' = 'مِنَ الْجِنَّةِ وَالنَّاسِ' collate utf8_unicode_ci unicode;
+---------+
| unicode |
+---------+
|       1 |
+---------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
```

Change the collation defined for the column to get the results that you want, for example:

```
alter MyTable modify MyColumn text collate utf8_general_ci;
```

Can not search arabic in mysql Quran Database with php

Solution

Problem