How to save string with variables to database?

Question

I wish to save html email to database. I've prepared my string witch contains html code and some variables like:

$name = "Tom";
$msg = '<p>how are you '.$name.' ?</p>';
$testmsg = htmlentities($msg, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");

...than save it with PDO to database.

Problem is that when I'm using htmlentities function $testmsg becomes empty...

What should i do to save this string with many variables and call htmlentities?

Answer 1

The php file that is containing those:

$name = "Tom";
$msg = '<p>how are you '.$name.' ?</p>';
$testmsg = htmlentities($msg, ENT_QUOTES, "UTF-8");

need to be saved in UTF8. I've saved it in ANSI by mistake and htmlentities function cleared whole string.