title: Get first UTF-8 char from string and save in DB
body: <p>I have a problem with inserting a letter that is not an <code>A-Z</code> char.<br>
  For example:</p>
  
  <p><code>$fullTag = 'świat';</code></p>
  
  <p>A <code>'letter'</code> should contains <code>ś</code></p>
  
  <pre><code>$data = array(
      'full_tag'  =&gt; $fullTag,
      'count'     =&gt; 1,
      'letter'    =&gt; $fullTag[0],
  );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But when I execute <code>$table-&gt;insert($data);</code>, it inserts me as <code>letter</code> an empty string.</p>
  
  <p>If I set instead of <code>$fullTag[0]</code> a static letter <code>ś</code> - it works fine.</p>
  
  <p><code>letter</code> column is <code>utf8_polish_ci</code> <code>char(1)</code></p>
  
  <p>Any ideas ?</p>