<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.utf8-encode">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>utf8_encode</refname>
  <refpurpose>Encodes an ISO-8859-1 string to UTF-8</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 
 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>string</type><methodname>utf8_encode</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>data</parameter></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para>
   This function encodes the string <parameter>data</parameter> to
   <literal>UTF-8</literal>, and returns the encoded version.
   <literal>UTF-8</literal> is a standard mechanism used by
   <acronym>Unicode</acronym> for encoding <glossterm>wide
   character</glossterm> values into a byte stream.
   <literal>UTF-8</literal> is transparent to plain <abbrev>ASCII</abbrev>
   characters, is self-synchronized (meaning it is possible for a program to
   figure out where in the bytestream characters start) and can be used with
   normal string comparison functions for sorting and such. PHP encodes
   <literal>UTF-8</literal> characters in up to four bytes, like this:
   <table>
    <title>UTF-8 encoding</title>
    <tgroup cols="3">
     <thead>
      <row>
       <entry>bytes</entry>
       <entry>bits</entry>
       <entry>representation</entry>
      </row>
     </thead>
     <tbody>
      <row>
       <entry>1</entry>
       <entry>7</entry>
       <entry>0bbbbbbb</entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>2</entry>
       <entry>11</entry>
       <entry>110bbbbb 10bbbbbb</entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>3</entry>
       <entry>16</entry>
       <entry>1110bbbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb</entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>4</entry>
       <entry>21</entry>
       <entry>11110bbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb 10bbbbbb</entry>
      </row>
     </tbody>
    </tgroup>
   </table>
   Each <replaceable>b</replaceable> represents a bit that can be
   used to store character data.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>data</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       An ISO-8859-1 string.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   Returns the UTF-8 translation of <parameter>data</parameter>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>

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