double quotes appear as ? on website

Hi,

I have an Excel file (which is converted to csv by a tool and then
uploaded to a MySQL database) and then php is used to display the
data on the website.

In the Excel file i have text fields which has data containing double
quotes. They end up appearing at ? question mark on the website. Any
idea how to dispaly the quotes

Should i be carefull of any other invisible characters in Excel which
can mess up the data.
Help me will greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Nurddin

nurddin19@yahoo.ca wrote:
> In the Excel file i have text fields which has data containing double
> quotes. They end up appearing at ? question mark on the website. Any
> idea how to dispaly the quotes

Those are "smart quotes" :(

Read http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/
and http://brent.epicserve.com/blog.php?id=20

or google for "smart quotes"

> Should i be carefull of any other invisible characters in Excel which
> can mess up the data.

Try viewing the generated file within a DOS/Command Prompt window:

C:\> cd wherever
C:\wherever> type file.csv | more

if I remember correctly.

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