PHP, ODBC, and nvarchar

By  on  

I stumbled upon an odd error using PHP's ODBC functions to query a SQL Server 2005 database. I was doing a basic SELECT statement to get the description of something when I encountered the following error:

Warning: odbc_exec() [function.odbc-exec]: SQL error: [unixODBC][FreeTDS][SQL Server]Unicode data in a Unicode-only collation or ntext data cannot be sent to clients using DB-Library (such as ISQL) or ODBC version 3.7 or earlier., SQL state in SQLExecDirect in /home/web/file.php on line 4

It turns out that the PHP ODBC functions have a hard time pulling "nvarchar" data. Here's the ugly solution to getting nvarchar data:

SELECT CAST(CAST([DetailedDescription] AS VARCHAR(8000)) AS TEXT) AS ad FROM mytable WHERE active = 1

Not pretty but making it function is what counts.

Recent Features

  • By
    I’m an Impostor

    This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write, much less admit to myself.  I've written resignation letters from jobs I've loved, I've ended relationships, I've failed at a host of tasks, and let myself down in my life.  All of those feelings were very...

  • By
    5 More HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed

    The HTML5 revolution has provided us some awesome JavaScript and HTML APIs.  Some are APIs we knew we've needed for years, others are cutting edge mobile and desktop helpers.  Regardless of API strength or purpose, anything to help us better do our job is a...

Incredible Demos

  • By
    MooTools TextOverlap Plugin

    Developers everywhere seem to be looking for different ways to make use of JavaScript libraries. Some creations are extremely practical, others aren't. This one may be more on the "aren't" side but used correctly, my TextOverlap plugin could add another interesting design element...

  • By
    MooTools Gone Wild: Element Flashing

    If you're like me and lay awake in bed at night, you've flipped on the TV and seen the commercials: misguided, attention-starved college girls fueled by alcohol ruining their futures by flashing lame camera-men on Spring Break. Why do they do it? Attention...

Discussion

  1. THANKS!!!
    muchas gracias.. ahora puedo seguir trabajando tranquilo.. justamante estaba teniendo problemas con un campo nvarchar.

  2. umberleigh

    Casting to varchar limits you to 8000 characters in a field.

    I found just casting to text works better, like so:

    print("SELECT CAST([column_name] AS TEXT) AS column_0 FROM table_name");
  3. Thanks , nice solve problem from sql server

  4. San

    Cast did the job ….

    Nice post !!!

  5. mohi

    not work!

    Warning: mssql_query() [function.mssql-query]: message: Incorrect syntax near ‘ASâ’. (severity 15) in /var/www/vhosts/fvc.ir/httpdocs/mssql.php on line 11

  6. Thank you very very much!
    And here is how to write value:
    http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7255703/utf-8-in-sql-server-2008-database-php

    $value = 'ŽČŘĚÝÁÖ';
    $value = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-16LE', $value); //convert into native encoding 
    $value = bin2hex($value); //convert into hexadecimal
    $query = 'INSERT INTO some_table (some_nvarchar_field)  VALUES(CONVERT(nvarchar(MAX), 0x'.$value.'))';
    
  7. thanks a lot. i was not shure what was the problem. In the sql management studio the data looks fine and in php is not. my first impresion was user rights for the data .. but after 1 hour of hair pulling :) i wandered if culd be the odbc … and like this i found your post

    thanks again

  8. Riyas

    Thanks for this solution. I was stuck at this problem and finally reached here

Wrap your code in <pre class="{language}"></pre> tags, link to a GitHub gist, JSFiddle fiddle, or CodePen pen to embed!