![]()
I am having this WordPress character display for quite some time and not knowing how to resolve it until today. Thanks to Steven Wong on his post about fixing characters on WordPress.
Before that, my blog was running fine with capabilities to display non-English characters, such as Chinese characters properly with no issue. During that time, the site is running on WordPress legacy version; that is, version 2.0.11. However, after upgrading a later version of WordPress, i.e. WordPress 2.3.x, those non-English characters have failed to display, and replaced by question marks (?). For example, "
" would show up as "???"
Without realising that by upgrading the WordPress to a later version, actually replaced specific commands in the script. This is particular to the following lines in "wp-config.php" file.
define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8?);
define(’DB_COLLATE’, ”);
Remove the lines by adding double slashes to them, i.e.
// define(’DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8?);
// define(’DB_COLLATE’, ”);
In doing so, the original post with error, as shown in this image, will show up like below:
According to WordPress Codex, it is strong advised that if both DB_COLLATE and DB_CHARSET do not exist in the original "wp-config" file when WordPress was first installed, these two definitions should not be added to the file after upgrading, unless user is fully aware and understand the underlying engine of Converting Database Character Sets for WordPress. Adding them to existing blog can cause problems, such as the one mentioned in this post. This pertains to those who are performing upgrades.
However, according to Steven, it was mentioned that by removing the two definitions, it may cause RSS to display erroneously. This is probably the only downside of this. Once again, this issue has not yet arised for me. So, it may still work for you.
WordPress ??? Display - Show Chinese Characters
Submitted by Alfie (not verified) on Mon, 2008-12-29 02:58.
- reply
Is this method also applicable for European Languages or should I leave the DB_CHARSET as is? Thanks.
Not Required for European Language
Submitted by keith on Mon, 2008-12-29 06:07.
- reply
Hi Alfie, this method is not necessary for Euripean languages; hence, you can leave the DB_CHARSET as it is.
Cheers,
Keith
Check youre database charset,
Submitted by monaye (not verified) on Wed, 2009-09-09 19:03.
- reply
This ??? can happen when you have different charset in the database. Database charset should be UTF-8.
Here is the link to how to convert database character set.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Converting_Database_Character_Sets
Thank you for the solution.
Submitted by Lee | Money4Invest (not verified) on Tue, 2009-12-22 02:44.
- reply
Thank you for the solution. It works like a charm. Now I can view chinese character in my post. Thank you.
Thank you for trick to show non-English & English in Wordpress
Submitted by Altis Lo (Beaulife) (not verified) on Thu, 2010-05-13 14:23.
- reply
Thank you, I have been wondering what goes wrong with Wordpress or my blog for not able to show both English and Chinese characters together. This is a great sharing.
[Delighting Lifestyle] Best Buy And Idea | Blog And Store
Follow @beaulife on Twitter.com.
Works like a charm
Submitted by Andy (not verified) on Wed, 2010-07-14 15:34.
- reply
I just saw the same issue when writing a post and adding some Chinese characters. Everything is working good now but will keep an eye on the RSS to make sure it doesn't mess up.
Post new comment