title: test encoding and correctness of strings in MySql Database
body: <p>I am using a mysql database Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.5.21, for Linux (x86_64). I save strings into this database using prepared statements in a java class.</p>
  
  <p>And now I would like to make sure that all strings I save are in UTF-8 format and contain no broken (as defined in the database creation schema) characters. Because it already happened that strings were broken and therefore contained questions tags instead of the characters that should be there. In my case, it was shown "R��ckenschmerzen" instead of "Rückenschmerzen". The German character "ü" was broken.
  Is it possible to find such errors via a JUnit test?</p>
  
  <p>Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
  Horace</p>