wp_insert_post and title not utf8 inserts with empty title?

Question

I'm using wp_insert_post I loop over a text file one row at a time and for each row, I create a post. The text is set as the `post_title', for the text that is not utf8 the post inserts but with an empty title.

Why does that happen, if I'm able to create a post in the backend admin using non-utf8 chars it looks like WordPress converts the encoding in the backend.

How can I bypass this with wp_insert_post and have it insert the post title with non-utf8 chars?

Thanks

Answer 1

It could be due to the text encoding you are using is not set to UTF8, try to use iconv() and set.

iconv('ISO-8859-1','UTF-8', $post_info['post_content']);

Answer 2

This is where the WordPress data sanitization functions come in handy, specifically sanitize_text_field(). Try using that function on your text before/while inserting it. This should also be safe for the lines that are currently working.

wp_insert_post(array(
   'post_title' => sanitize_text_field( $text_from_row )
));