title: MSSQL retrieve UTF-8 json data using PHP
body: <p>Hi i am trying to retrieve Arabic data from my database using php but all i got is questions marks .. the data stored fine in the database and the column type is nvarchar</p>
  
  <p>I tried to put this code <code>ini_set('mssql.charset', 'UTF-8');</code>  in my php but still it is not working</p>
  
  <p>Here is sample of my code:
  db_connect.php:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
  ini_set('mssql.charset', 'UTF-8');
  
  $link=mssql_connect('SQL*******', 'username', 'password');
  
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>get_about.php</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
          include_once './db_connect.php';
          $sql ="SELECT * FROM About"; 
          $select = mssql_query($sql);
  
          if ($select) {
              while ($list = mssql_fetch_array($select)){
                  $output = $list;
              }
              print json_encode($output);
          } else {
              print json_encode('fail select');
          }
  
  
  
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>