utf8_encode

(PHP 3>= 3.0.6, PHP 4 )

utf8_encode -- encodes an ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8

Description

string utf8_encode ( string data)

This function encodes the string data to UTF-8, and returns the encoded version. UTF-8 is a standard mechanism used by Unicode for encoding wide character values into a byte stream. UTF-8 is transparent to plain ASCII characters, is self-synchronized (meaning it is possible for a program to figure out where in the bytestream characters start) and can be used with normal string comparison functions for sorting and such. PHP encodes UTF-8 characters in up to four bytes, like this:

Table 1. UTF-8 encoding

bytesbitsrepresentation
170bbbbbbb
211110bbbbb 10bbbbbb
3161110bbbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb
42111110bbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb
Each b represents a bit that can be used to store character data.