Character encoding from MySQL to CSV using PHP - php

Question

I am having problem with special character e.g. Russian characters are converted into ???? when I export MySQL query to CSV file.I used iconv() function but it is not working.
What should I do to fix this issue. I read different posts but nothing seems to be working for me
public function generateReport($nameReport,$db,$query,$host,$user,$pwd){
$con = mysql_connect($host,$user,$pwd);
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
$db_selected = mysql_select_db($db, $con);
if (!$db_selected)
{
die ("Can\'t use test_db : " . mysql_error());
}
$res = mysql_query($query);
if (!$res) {
$message = 'Invalid query: ' . mysql_error() . "\n";
$message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
die($message);
}
$file='/home/'.$nameReport.'.csv';
$fp = fopen($file,'w') or exit("Unable to open file!");
if($fp){
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res);
$line = "";
$comma = "";
foreach($row as $name => $value) {
$line .= $comma . '"' . str_replace('"', '""', $name) . '"';
$comma = ",";
}
$line .= "\n";
fputs($fp, $line);
mysql_data_seek($res, 0);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res)) {
$line = "";
$comma = "";
foreach($row as $value) {
iconv( mb_detect_encoding( $value ), 'UTF-8', $value);
$line .= $comma . '"' . str_replace('"', '""', $value) . '"';
$comma = ",";
}
$line .= "\n";
fputs($fp, $line);
}
}
return '/home/'.$nameReport.'.csv';
}

Answer 1

Why not export directly from MySQL to CSV without going through PHP?
SELECT field_you_want, other_field_you_want
FROM your_table
INTO OUTFILE 'c:\\filename.csv'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
ENCLOSED BY '"'
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n';

Answer 2

for russian only, you can try this
$value = mb_convert_encoding($value, 'KOI8-R','UTF-8' );
$line .= $comma . '"' . str_replace('"', '""', $value) . '"';
$comma = ",";
for other charsets, you have to find a way to get the charset info.
maybe, mb_detect_encoding with mb_detect_order
or maybe if you get that text from a website: from server header or charset defined at the head of page...