phpmyadmin import csv with symbols

When I import my CSV file, symbols (such as $ £ é á ü etc) are changed to ?s.

Any idea how to fix this?

(for instance can I open it in excel and save with开发者_运维百科 the symbols changed to their respective html entity? eg: £ -> £)

Thanks

No need to convert the characters into HTML entities. You just need to choose the correct character set when importing the file.

In phpMyAdmin, you should have a drop-down selection like this:

You should be able to find out the character set used by Excel in the "Save as..." dialog.