$mysqli = new mysqli($hostName, $dbUser, $dbPassword, $dbName);
 $mysqli->set_charset('utf-8'); 
		
  /* check connection */
  if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
      printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
      exit();
  }

<meta charset="utf-8">

$mysqli = new mysqli($hostName, $dbUser, $dbPassword, $dbName);
		
		/* check connection */
        if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
            printf("Connect failed: %s\n", mysqli_connect_error());
            exit();
		}
		
		if (!$mysqli->set_charset("utf8")) {
            printf("Error loading character set utf8: %s\n", $mysqli->error);
        }