# MySQL data in Cyrillic displayed as question mark

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mysql-data-in-cyrillic-displayed-as-question-mark/57291>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 9, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mysql-data-in-cyrillic-displayed-as-question-mark/57291 "2006-04-09T03:04:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aleksey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@Aleksey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aleksey)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mysql-data-in-cyrillic-displayed-as-question-mark/57291/1 "2006-04-09T03:04:58Z")

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I hope it is a simple question. Cyrillic (cp1251) text retrieved from  
MySQL is displayed as question marks in Rails. Even worse, if you  
update the database from the application, the Cyrillic text is  
replaced with question marks too.

The local MySQL Administrator tool has no problem with displaying  
cyrillic in the database. That is why my guess that ActiveRecord, or  
whatever it is, incorrectly reads data from the DB. Normally I would  
expect that you configure the codepage for the application, but I cannot  
find anything like that in Rails.

Can someone help me out here?

Thank you in advance.

Regards,  
Aleksey Chabunin

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aleksey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@Aleksey](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aleksey)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mysql-data-in-cyrillic-displayed-as-question-mark/57291/2 "2006-04-27T00:51:30Z")

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I have the same problem