PHP, MySql- utf8_encode returns unknown character, How to convert?

[vsstephen]

PHP, MySql- utf8_encode returns unknown character, How to convert?
Need some help tips.

Input data = “6-6½” -> save data -> retrieve data from db -> 6-6ؤ

Client post this data to server
$STRCOL9 = utf8_encode(str_replace("SELECT","",$_REQUEST['FRMSTRCOL9']));

Save data using the following character data set.
Mysql dataType: varchar
Collation: utf8_unicode_ci
mysql_query("SET character_set_client=utf8", $dbObject->create());
mysql_query("SET character_set_connection=utf8", $dbObject->create());
if (!mysql_query($AddData, $dbObject->create()))

Using utf8 character set for data retrieval
mysql_query("SET character_set_results=utf8", $dbObject->create());
$res = mysql_query($sql, $dbObject->create());

[abduraooft]

Have a try by executing the following query before insert and select.

mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'")