Using utf8 encoding in Ruby with MySQL 5.1 and 5.5

remember to require mysql gem first

	require "rubygems"
	require 'mysql'

with MySQL 5.1 db = Mysql.init db.options(Mysql::SET_CHARSET_NAME,“utf8”) db.real_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “database”)

with MySQL 5.5 db = Mysql.real_connect(“localhost”, “username”, “password”, “database”) db.charset = “utf8”

check the result: puts db.character_set_name

If you got utf8, Congratulations!