Strings differents but equals in php - php

Question

I am using eclipse editor. I am programming within vtiger 5.4. in my file config.inc.php the variable $default_charset is setted as
$default_charset = 'UTF-8';
I'm trying to make a sql query in mysql using the next variable
$sql = "select cod_dpto from vtiger_ubi where dpto='" . $dpto . "'";
When I print the variable $dpto I get "SAÑA", but the execution of the query mysql
$adb->query ( $sql );
doesn't work. But when I modify my query as:
$sql = "select cod_dpto from vtiger_ubi where dpto='SAÑA'";
the instruction
$adb->query ( $sql );
returns the values that I need.
Could you help me please, how can I convert my variable $dpto such that the sql query works well.
EDIT
I trying to make the query with the below code, without vtiger, and I get 0 results for thw two cases with variable and writing 'SAÑA'
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "peru2006";
$dbname = "consuladoperurio_com_br_2";
$port = "3306";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli ( $servername, $username, $password, $dbname, $port );
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die ( "Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error );
}
$sql = "select cod_dpto from vtiger_ubigeo where dpto='$dpto'";
echo $sql;
$result = $conn->query ( $sql );
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while ( $row = $result->fetch_assoc () ) {
echo "id: " . $row ["cod_dpto"] "<br>";
}
} else {
echo "0 results";
}
$conn->close ();

Answer 1

Your Select statement looks like this:
$sql = "select cod_dpto from vtiger_ubi where dpto='".SAÑA."';
you'll probably want it to look like:
$sql = "select cod_dpto from vtiger_ubi where dpto='$dpto'";
Notice no concat operator, and the variable is only wrapped in single quotes.