php - UTF8 real decode -

possibly simple question , wondering how can decode utf8 characters readable characters.

for example :

l'heure suprême 

into

l'heure suprême

i tried following :

utf8_encode , utf8_decode , `html_entity_decode($string, ent_compat, "utf-8");` 

the output never gave me correct characters , example

 html_entity_decode($string, ent_compat, "utf-8"); returned l'heure suprême 

edit : stupid question , html_entity_decode($string, ent_compat, "iso-8859-15"); did trick

in order results displayed, you'll need tell receiving end, encoding used:

header('content-type: text/plain; charset=utf-8');  $string = 'l'heure suprême'; print html_entity_decode($string, ent_compat, "utf-8"); 

the output without explicitly naming charset encoding provokes undefined behavior. earlier today, suggested a great article joel spolsky on unicode , character sets. makes read , i'll suggest "skim over" it.