json_encode is returning NULL?

Question

For some reason the item "description" returns NULL with the following code:

<?php
include('db.php');

$result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM `staff` ORDER BY `id` DESC LIMIT 2') or die(mysql_error());
$rows = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
    $rows[] = $row;
}

echo json_encode($rows);
?>

Here is the schema for my database:

CREATE TABLE `staff` (
  `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `name` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `description` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `icon` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `date` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `company` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `companyurl` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `appurl` longtext COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=5 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci

Here is what is echoed out on the page:

[{"id":"4","name":"Noter 2","description":null,"icon":"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/webapps\/productivity\/images\/noter2_20091223182720-thumb.jpg","date":"1262032317","company":"dBelement, LLC","companyurl":"http:\/\/dbelement.com\/","appurl":"http:\/\/noter2.dbelement.com"},{"id":"3","name":"Noter 2","description":null,"icon":"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/webapps\/productivity\/images\/noter2_20091223182720-thumb.jpg","date":"1262032317","company":"dBelement, LLC","companyurl":"http:\/\/dbelement.com\/","appurl":"http:\/\/noter2.dbelement.com"}]

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I bet you are retrieving data in non-utf8 encoding: try to put mysql_query('SET CHARACTER SET utf8') before your SELECT query.