PHP: strip accents

-Replace accents and special characters of the alphabet-

If you are having trouble with accents acting weird on your site, this script might help you!

It's a little function to add on your page and use it when you face accent problems. It will replace all natural language accent into an accent-free correspondent letter. Some people could argue that the choices I made for replacements are not the best. For example, the german ß will be replaced by B and not ss. The idea here is to keep the string easily readable although it won't be grammatically correct anyway. Discussions are welcome.

Now here goes the function:

<?php function stripaccents(&$string){ $accents = array('À', 'Á', 'Â', 'Ã', 'Ä', 'Å', 'Ā', 'Ą', 'Ă', 'Æ', 'Ç', 'Ć', 'Č', 'Ĉ', 'Ċ', 'Ď', 'Đ', 'È', 'É', 'Ê', 'Ë', 'Ē', 'Ę', 'Ě', 'Ĕ', 'Ė', 'Ĝ', 'Ğ', 'Ġ', 'Ģ', 'Ĥ', 'Ħ', 'Ì', 'Í', 'Î', 'Ï', 'Ī', 'Ĩ', 'Ĭ', 'Į', 'İ', 'IJ', 'Ĵ', 'Ķ', 'Ł', 'Ľ', 'Ĺ', 'Ļ', 'Ŀ', 'Ñ', 'Ń', 'Ň', 'Ņ', 'Ŋ', 'Ò', 'Ó', 'Ô', 'Õ', 'Ö', 'Ø', 'Ō', 'Ő', 'Ŏ', 'Œ', 'Ŕ', 'Ř', 'Ŗ', 'Ś', 'Š', 'Ş', 'Ŝ', 'Ș', 'Ť', 'Ţ', 'Ŧ', 'Ț', 'Ù', 'Ú', 'Û', 'Ü', 'Ū', 'Ů', 'Ű', 'Ŭ', 'Ũ', 'Ų', 'Ŵ', 'Ý', 'Ŷ', 'Ÿ', 'Ź', 'Ž', 'Ż', 'à', 'á', 'â', 'ã', 'ä', 'å', 'ā', 'ą', 'ă', 'æ', 'ç', 'ć', 'č', 'ĉ', 'ċ', 'ď', 'đ', 'è', 'é', 'ê', 'ë', 'ē', 'ę', 'ě', 'ĕ', 'ė', 'ƒ', 'ĝ', 'ğ', 'ġ', 'ģ', 'ĥ', 'ħ', 'ì', 'í', 'î', 'ï', 'ī', 'ĩ', 'ĭ', 'į', 'ı', 'ij', 'ĵ', 'ķ', 'ĸ', 'ł', 'ľ', 'ĺ', 'ļ', 'ŀ', 'ñ', 'ń', 'ň', 'ņ', 'ʼn', 'ŋ', 'ò', 'ó', 'ô', 'õ', 'ö', 'ø', 'ō', 'ő', 'ŏ', 'œ', 'ŕ', 'ř', 'ŗ', 'ś', 'š', 'ş', 'ŝ', 'ș', 'ť', 'ţ', 'ŧ', 'ț', 'ù', 'ú', 'û', 'ü', 'ū', 'ů', 'ű', 'ŭ', 'ũ', 'ų', 'ŵ', 'ý', 'ÿ', 'ŷ', 'ž', 'ż', 'ź', 'Þ', 'þ', 'ß', 'ſ', 'Ð', 'ð');

$letters = array('A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'A', 'AE', 'C', 'C', 'C', 'C', 'C', 'D', 'D', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'E', 'G', 'G', 'G', 'G', 'H', 'H', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'I', 'J', 'J', 'K', 'L', 'L', 'L', 'L', 'L', 'N', 'N', 'N', 'N', 'N', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'O', 'E', 'R', 'R', 'R', 'S', 'S', 'S', 'S', 'S', 'T', 'T', 'T', 'T', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'W', 'Y', 'Y', 'Y', 'Z', 'Z', 'Z', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'a', 'e', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'd', 'd', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'g' ,'g', 'g', 'h', 'h', 'i', 'i', 'i', 'i', 'i', 'i', 'i','i', 'i', 'j', 'j', 'k', 'k', 'l', 'l', 'l', 'l' ,'l' ,'n', 'n', 'n', 'n', 'n', 'n', 'o', 'o', 'o', 'o' ,'o', 'o', 'o', 'o' ,'o', 'e', 'r' ,'r' ,'r' ,'s', 's', 's' ,'s', 's', 't' ,'t' ,'t' ,'t' ,'u' ,'u', 'u' ,'u' ,'u', 'u' ,'u' ,'u' ,'u' ,'u' ,'w', 'y', 'y', 'y', 'z', 'z', 'z', 'T', 't', 'B', 'f','D', 'd');

$string = str_replace($accents, $letters, $string);}

// Afte you have added this at the top of your php code just use the function as follows:

$mytext = "Ťĥïş śťŗĩņġ ħåŝ ŵĕĭŕđ ąċċēńţš"; // this is the text with accents

stripaccents($mytext);  //this is when the function will do it's magic

echo $mytext;    //this will output the string without the accents

?>

The output will be:

This string has weird accents

Optimize the code to fit your needs :

• to change the letter replaced you should find the accent on the first half of the code (the $accents variable) and it's correspondent letter at the bottom half. Each letter on top must have a correspondent letter at the bottom.
• if you want to keep the original variable intact, take out the & on the first line. In this case you should copy the result of the function into a new variable: $result = stripaccents($mytext); The variable $mytext will still contain the accents.