Export cyrillic mysql database to csv

Very common encoding problem is when you are trying to export cyrillic mysql database to CSV for MS Excel. We all know what is the normal export procedure – go to phpMyAdmin > select the desired table and click Export.

For Export Method choose Custom – display all possible options. Then change the encoding to utf-16.

The problem when you do the export in utf-16 might be that all the columns might be in one column. So there is a better way.

Export your cyrillic mysql in utf-8, then open it with Notepad (right click on the icon -> open with -> Notepad). After that click Save as -> make sure the encoding is utf-8 and then type for File name -> name.csv.

That’s it. After you open it again in MS Excel everything should look fine.