C#: Unicode from a string with MySQL

Question

I'm trying to insert a string into a MySQL database. I can insert it by running the query on the server, but when I try to use my C# source file to insert "Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn", I get "Iñtërnâtiônà lizætiøn". I've tried adding it as a parameter and adding ;charset=utf8 to my connection string, but no luck. The table in the database has utf8 as it's character set. Am I missing something.

This is my code (using a StringBuilder):

sqlBuffer.Append(
    string.Format(
        @"INSERT `resources` (id, somefield) 
        VALUES (20004,'Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn');");

Answer 1

You need to specify that it's unicode/utf8 with N'' or _utf8'':

sqlBuffer.Append(
    string.Format(
        @"INSERT `resources` (id, somefield) 
        VALUES (20004, N'Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn');");

Answer 2

You probably need to select the correct culture and provide it to string.Format. You may want to read http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1ksz8yb7.aspx which inspired the example below (WARNING: untested!):

using System.Globalization;

// ...

string[] cultureNames = { "en-US", "fr-FR", "de-DE", "es-ES" };    

// this loop will inject your string using various cultures
foreach (string cultureName in cultureNames)
{
   CultureInfo culture = new CultureInfo(cultureName);

   sqlBuffer.Append(
     string.Format(culture,
       @"INSERT `resources` (id, somefield) 
       VALUES (20004, N'Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn');");
}

Note that you also need to check your table settings with regard to character set collation.