Problem with characterset

[Ali_baba]

Hello all,

I have a big problem with characterset and on the reterival of data in form of .xls file, the data is like a garbage. I am trying my best by using different solution but problem exists.:queasy:

I am using charset=UTF-8 for data entry page.
But when I see the entered data in myPHPAdmin, I see ä as ä, ö as ö and å as Ã¥. Same problem exists when I export the data in .xls format.

1. Is this the problem while data entry? I mean should I use charset other than UTF-8?

2. If data entry page is ok then where is the problem which makes my data like this?

Thanks in advance

[Ali_baba]

I came up with something.

htmlentities() might help me in this scenario by parsing the variable using this function BEFORE entering in the database.