How to collate string for mysql query

I have a query that filters based on content from a website. It usually works just fine, except for when it finds content that doesn't agree with the (default) collati开发者_运维百科on I have on the table. Is there a way, on Php's side, to adjust the collation?

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you can use mysql CONVERT() and CAST()

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-convert.html