title: $_POST will convert from utf-8 to Ã¤ Ã¶ Ã¼ etc
body: <p>I am new here, so I apologize if I am doing anything wrong.</p>
  
  <p>I have a form which submits user input onto another page. User is expected to type ä, ö, é, etc... I have placed all of the following in the document:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"&gt;
  header('Content-Type:text/html; charset=UTF-8');
  &lt;form action="whatever.php" accept-charset="UTF-8"&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I even tried:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ini_set('default_charset', 'UTF-8');
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When the other page loads, I need to check what the user input with something like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>if ( $_POST['field'] == $check ) {
    ...
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But if he inputs something like 'München', PHP will compare 'MÃ¼nchen' with 'München' and will never trigger TRUE even though it should. Since it is specified UTF-8 everywhere, I am guessing that the server is converting to something else (Windows-1252 as I read on another thread) because it does not support or is not configured to UTF-8. I am using Apache on a local server before I load into production; I have not changed (and don't know how to) any of the default settings. I've been working on a Windows 7, editing with Notepad++ enconding my files in ANSI. If I <code>bin2hex('München')</code> I get '4dc3bc6e6368656e'.</p>
  
  <p>If I <code>echo $_POST['field'];</code> it displays 'München' correctly.</p>
  
  <p>I have researched everywhere for an explanation, all I find is that I should include those tags/headings I already have.</p>
  
  <p>Any help is much appreciated.</p>