Encoding data from an array, what's wrong?

Question

PHP

In general. There is a root index.php file into which the menu is loaded using such an array

$menu = [
    ["link"=>"Главная", "href"=>"index.php"],
    ["link"=>"О себе", "href"=>"about_me.php"],
    ["link"=>"Путешествия", "href"=>"travel.php"],
    ["link"=>"Мои песни", "href"=>"my_music.php"],
    ["link"=>"Видеозаписи", "href"=>"my_video.php"],
  ];

and features

function drawMenu($menu, $poz = true){
    global $menu;
    if(!is_array($menu)){
      return false;
    }
    $sort_by = " ";
      if($poz == false){
        $sort_by = "style ='display: block';";
      }
        echo "<ul>";
      foreach($menu as $item){
      echo "<li $sort_by>";
        echo "<a href={$item['href']}>{$item['link']}</a>";
      echo "</li>";
      }
        echo "</ul>";
  }

The menu is displayed in the form of rhombuses with question marks inside. If you place an array in index, everything works and the menu is displayed correctly, but this implementation does not suit me. The array and function are in a separate file, one level above the root index. In .htaccess I wrote AddDefaultCharset UTF-8 does not help. Tell me what can be done?

Answer 1

I once had the same problem. Until I switched to a normal editor. Check the encoding in the function file.