This is a guide that will assist you display Greek letters while exporting data from an SQL Server Database using PHP.
I recently had to develop an application that will show the reserved University halls according to the timetable. The data were stored in an MS SQL Server 2012 database with Greek_CI_AI Collation.
The application uses PHP to communicate with the MS SQL Server and I spent quite a lot of time and effort to figure out how to display the Greek letters.
The key was to use iso-8859-7 in PHP charset and utf-8 in HTML charset.
So, the following code shows you how to implement it and enable sorting, pagination and query your data.
<?php
header(‘Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-7’);
?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang=”en”>
<head>
<meta charset=”utf-8″>
<link href=”../img/favicon.ico” rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/vnd.microsoft.icon” />
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1″>
<script src=”https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.js”></script>
<script src=”https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.13/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js”></script>
<link href=”https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.13/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css” rel=”stylesheet”>
<script src=”https://code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/jquery-ui.js”></script>
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”//code.jquery.com/ui/1.12.1/themes/base/jquery-ui.css”>
<link rel=”stylesheet” href=”css/dynamic.css”>
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
//$( “#datepicker” ).datepicker();
// Setup – add a text input to each footer cell
$(‘#example tfoot th’).each( function () {
var title = $(this).text();
$(this).html( ‘<input type=”text” placeholder=”Search ‘+title+'” />’ );
});
// DataTable
var table = $(‘#example’).DataTable();
// Apply the search
table.columns().every( function () {
var that = this;
$( ‘input’, this.footer() ).on( ‘keyup change’, function () {
if ( that.search() !== this.value ) {
that
.search( this.value )
.draw();
}
});
});
});
</script>
<script>
$( function() {
$( “#datepicker” ).datepicker({ dateFormat: ‘yy-mm-dd’ });
$( “#datepicker2” ).datepicker({ dateFormat: ‘yy-mm-dd’ });
} );
</script>
<script>
function validateForm()
{
var first = document.getElementById(“datepicker”).value;
var last = document.getElementById(“datepicker2″).value;
//if ($.datepicker.parseDate(‘dd/mm/yy’, GuarantyTo) < $.datepicker.parseDate(‘dd/mm/yy’, GuarantyFrom))
if (last < first)
{
alert(‘End Date ‘ + ‘is earlier than ‘ + ‘Start Date’);
return false;
}
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div class=”container-fluid”>
<div class=”row”>
<h3>Timatable</h3>
</div>
<div class=”row”>
<form action=”dump.php” method=”POST” class=”form-block” onsubmit=”return validateForm()”>
<!– Form will send its results to the output file–>
<div class=”field”>
<label for=”datepicker”>Από: </label>
<input type=”text” id=”datepicker” name=”datepicker”>
<!–/div–>
<!–div class=”field”–>
<label for=”datepicker2″>Εως: </label>
<input type=”text” id=”datepicker2″ name=”datepicker2″>
<!–/div–>
<!–div class=”field”–>
<label for=”locations”>Αίθουσα: </label>
<input type=”text” id=”locations” name=”locations”>
<button type=”submit”>Submit</button>
<button type=”reset”>Clear</button>
</div>
</form>
<br />
<table id=”example” class=”display” width=”100%” cellspacing=”0″>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Ημ/νία</th>
<th>Ημέρα</th>
<th>Έναρξη</th>
<th>Λήξη</th>
<th>Μάθημα</th>
<th>Περιγραφή</th>
<th>Αίθουσα</th>
<th>Τοποθεσία</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<th>Ημ/νία</th>
<th>Ημέρα</th>
<th>Έναρξη</th>
<th>Λήξη</th>
<th>Μάθημα</th>
<th>Περιγραφή</th>
<th>Αίθουσα</th>
<th>Τοποθεσία</th>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<?php
include ‘database2.php’;
mssql_select_db(‘CSTIMETABLE’)
or die(‘Could not select a database.’);
$sql = “SELECT evID, dayofWeek, convert(date, evstart)as res_date,CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),evstart,108) as evstart, CONVERT(VARCHAR(5),evend,108) as evend,subject, UNIEvents.evTypeID, evtypedesc, wkpattern, Locations as locations, siName from UNIEvents inner join UNIEventType on UNIEvents.evTypeID = UNIEventType.evtypeID
inner join UNILocation on UNIEvents.Locations = UNILocation.loName
inner join UNISite on UNILocation.loSiteID = UNISite.siID where evstart like ‘%2017%’ and evID < 387636 order by evID”;
$result = mssql_query($sql)
or die(‘A error occured: ‘ . mysql_error());
while ($Row = mssql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$mera = $Row[‘dayofWeek’];
if ($mera==1)
{
$day = “Δευτέρα”;
}
if ($mera==2)
{
$day = “Τρίτη”;
}
if ($mera==3)
{
$day = “Τετάρτη”;
}
if ($mera==4)
{
$day = “Πέμπτη”;
}
if ($mera==5)
{
$day = “Παρασκευή”;
}
if ($mera==6)
{
$day = “Σάββατο”;
}
if ($mera==7)
{
$day = “Κυριακή”;
}
echo ‘<tr>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘res_date’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $day . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘evstart’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘evend’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘subject’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘evtypedesc’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘locations’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘<td>’. $Row[‘siName’] . ‘</td>’;
echo ‘</tr>’;
}
mssql_close($link);
?>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
<div class=”container”>
<div class=”row”>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>