# different language data in database

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656>\
**Category:** Other MySQL® Questions\
**Created:** [February 29, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656 "2008-02-29T05:07:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mr\_empty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mr\_empty](https://forums.percona.com/u/mr_empty)\
**Post date:** [February 29, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656/1 "2008-02-29T05:07:35Z")

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hi all,  
I need to put russian data record in db in mysql server, but the record didn’t show normal character for russian, and i can’t query expected output for the russian data, is there any config or solution to solve it ? thanks!

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**Author:** ![Speeple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Speeple](https://forums.percona.com/u/Speeple)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656/2 "2008-03-03T09:23:52Z")

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What is the result of this query:  
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ‘character%’;

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mr\_empty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mr\_empty](https://forums.percona.com/u/mr_empty)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656/3 "2008-03-04T01:53:02Z")

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in the database, it is many ? character.  
in the web page after query, it is many odd character.

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**Author:** ![erkules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/db5fbb/32.png) [@erkules](https://forums.percona.com/u/erkules)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656/4 "2008-03-04T06:18:19Z")

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Thats not the proper answer.  
You were supposed to type that statement  
SHOW VARIABLES LIKE ‘character%’;  
into your client.

MySQL uses UTF-8 so there should be (in principle) no problem with a russian data-set.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Speeple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Speeple](https://forums.percona.com/u/Speeple)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/different-language-data-in-database/656/5 "2008-03-04T06:21:09Z")

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The only help I can provide now is suggesting this query before any INSERT or any SELECT:

SET NAMES ‘utf8’

This also assumes your HTML pages are outputted in UTF-8, that you input correct UTF-8 and that your MySQL configuration is also set to UTF-8.