special character, sql, csv, phpmyadmin, excel

I have a csv file with special characters. I like to use Excel because I can change the columns, concatenate, etc., to change the entire table to my required table in MySQL. But Excel just opens it showing weird characters for special characters, so in the end before I import to my M开发者_Go百科ySQL via phpMyAdmin, the data is alraedy broke.

What is the best way for me to edit a table with special characters for importing to phpMyAdmin later?

You should be able to tell Excel what character set to parse the file in when opening it. Try playing with the various character sets the import dialog has to offer. (It shows an import dialog, right? I only have OpenOffice here.)

You will need to go through that exercise anyway at some point, because you will need to know the file's character set when importing it into the data base.