[SOLVED] converting Unicode characters

[miseleigh]

I'm just wondering if there are any functions or scripts out there to convert non-English characters to their English equivalents (ex: ñ->n, or ä->a, and hopefully æ->ae.)  I haven't been able to find much.  The best I've found was a quick link to a Unicode normalizer, but it doesn't seem to do what I'm looking for - or at least, if it can, I can't figure out how.  This isn't critical or anything, just a question, but if you happen to know the answer...

 

Thanks!

[effigy]

If your data is in UTF-8 you should be able to decompose the characters, then remove the marks with a regular expression. There's a module mentioned at the bottom of my post here and an example of detecting marks here. I don't think "æ" will decompose because it does not involve any markings; you might have to write your own for this.

[miseleigh]

Actually, I've already read that whole thread (that's where I got the link to the normalizer I pointed to - thanks!) but I don't quite understand how to do it. Would this work?

$newfoo = I18N_UnicodeNormalizer::toNFD('foo'); 
preg_replace('/\p{M}/u','', $newfoo);

Is NFD the right one?  I found one source that says that one means decompose...

 

Unicode's interesting, but it's a bit confusing for someone who's never had to deal with it before.  Thanks for helping.

[effigy]

I haven't used the module myself, but yes, that looks correct. Make sure you assign the preg_replace results back to $newfoo if you want the variable to be modified. NFD stands for "Normalization Form D"--the "D" for decomposition. On second thought, you may be able to pull off the æ decomposition by using NKFD, which is a compatibility decomposition rather than a canonical one.

 

It's interesting indeed. The basics aren't so bad