PHP Iconv adding extra characters

Question

I'm trying to remove all the accents etc from some text in PHP using iconv. It strips the accents but sometimes adds an extra character, for example: "Théâtre" comes out as "Th'e^atre" whereas I want "Theatre"

Here is my code:

setlocale(LC_ALL, "fr_FR.utf8");
$text = "Théâtre";
$text = iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT//IGNORE",$text);
echo $text;

Result: Th'e^atre

Answer 1

My solution to this was to use the Wordpress implementation. Not pretty but in the end nothing else did the trick

function remove_accents( $string ) {
if ( !preg_match('/[\x80-\xff]/', $string) )
    return $string;

$chars = array(
// Decompositions for Latin-1 Supplement
'ª' => 'a', 'º' => 'o',
'À' => 'A', 'Á' => 'A',
'Â' => 'A', 'Ã' => 'A',
'Ä' => 'A', 'Å' => 'A',
'Æ' => 'AE','Ç' => 'C',
'È' => 'E', 'É' => 'E',
'Ê' => 'E', 'Ë' => 'E',
'Ì' => 'I', 'Í' => 'I',
'Î' => 'I', 'Ï' => 'I',
'Ð' => 'D', 'Ñ' => 'N',
'Ò' => 'O', 'Ó' => 'O',
'Ô' => 'O', 'Õ' => 'O',
'Ö' => 'O', 'Ù' => 'U',
'Ú' => 'U', 'Û' => 'U',
'Ü' => 'U', 'Ý' => 'Y',
'Þ' => 'TH','ß' => 's',
'à' => 'a', 'á' => 'a',
'â' => 'a', 'ã' => 'a',
'ä' => 'a', 'å' => 'a',
'æ' => 'ae','ç' => 'c',
'è' => 'e', 'é' => 'e',
'ê' => 'e', 'ë' => 'e',
'ì' => 'i', 'í' => 'i',
'î' => 'i', 'ï' => 'i',
'ð' => 'd', 'ñ' => 'n',
'ò' => 'o', 'ó' => 'o',
'ô' => 'o', 'õ' => 'o',
'ö' => 'o', 'ø' => 'o',
'ù' => 'u', 'ú' => 'u',
'û' => 'u', 'ü' => 'u',
'ý' => 'y', 'þ' => 'th',
'ÿ' => 'y', 'Ø' => 'O',
// Decompositions for Latin Extended-A
'Ā' => 'A', 'ā' => 'a',
'Ă' => 'A', 'ă' => 'a',
'Ą' => 'A', 'ą' => 'a',
'Ć' => 'C', 'ć' => 'c',
'Ĉ' => 'C', 'ĉ' => 'c',
'Ċ' => 'C', 'ċ' => 'c',
'Č' => 'C', 'č' => 'c',
'Ď' => 'D', 'ď' => 'd',
'Đ' => 'D', 'đ' => 'd',
'Ē' => 'E', 'ē' => 'e',
'Ĕ' => 'E', 'ĕ' => 'e',
'Ė' => 'E', 'ė' => 'e',
'Ę' => 'E', 'ę' => 'e',
'Ě' => 'E', 'ě' => 'e',
'Ĝ' => 'G', 'ĝ' => 'g',
'Ğ' => 'G', 'ğ' => 'g',
'Ġ' => 'G', 'ġ' => 'g',
'Ģ' => 'G', 'ģ' => 'g',
'Ĥ' => 'H', 'ĥ' => 'h',
'Ħ' => 'H', 'ħ' => 'h',
'Ĩ' => 'I', 'ĩ' => 'i',
'Ī' => 'I', 'ī' => 'i',
'Ĭ' => 'I', 'ĭ' => 'i',
'Į' => 'I', 'į' => 'i',
'İ' => 'I', 'ı' => 'i',
'IJ' => 'IJ','ij' => 'ij',
'Ĵ' => 'J', 'ĵ' => 'j',
'Ķ' => 'K', 'ķ' => 'k',
'ĸ' => 'k', 'Ĺ' => 'L',
'ĺ' => 'l', 'Ļ' => 'L',
'ļ' => 'l', 'Ľ' => 'L',
'ľ' => 'l', 'Ŀ' => 'L',
'ŀ' => 'l', 'Ł' => 'L',
'ł' => 'l', 'Ń' => 'N',
'ń' => 'n', 'Ņ' => 'N',
'ņ' => 'n', 'Ň' => 'N',
'ň' => 'n', 'ʼn' => 'n',
'Ŋ' => 'N', 'ŋ' => 'n',
'Ō' => 'O', 'ō' => 'o',
'Ŏ' => 'O', 'ŏ' => 'o',
'Ő' => 'O', 'ő' => 'o',
'Œ' => 'OE','œ' => 'oe',
'Ŕ' => 'R','ŕ' => 'r',
'Ŗ' => 'R','ŗ' => 'r',
'Ř' => 'R','ř' => 'r',
'Ś' => 'S','ś' => 's',
'Ŝ' => 'S','ŝ' => 's',
'Ş' => 'S','ş' => 's',
'Š' => 'S', 'š' => 's',
'Ţ' => 'T', 'ţ' => 't',
'Ť' => 'T', 'ť' => 't',
'Ŧ' => 'T', 'ŧ' => 't',
'Ũ' => 'U', 'ũ' => 'u',
'Ū' => 'U', 'ū' => 'u',
'Ŭ' => 'U', 'ŭ' => 'u',
'Ů' => 'U', 'ů' => 'u',
'Ű' => 'U', 'ű' => 'u',
'Ų' => 'U', 'ų' => 'u',
'Ŵ' => 'W', 'ŵ' => 'w',
'Ŷ' => 'Y', 'ŷ' => 'y',
'Ÿ' => 'Y', 'Ź' => 'Z',
'ź' => 'z', 'Ż' => 'Z',
'ż' => 'z', 'Ž' => 'Z',
'ž' => 'z', 'ſ' => 's',
// Decompositions for Latin Extended-B
'Ș' => 'S', 'ș' => 's',
'Ț' => 'T', 'ț' => 't',
// Euro Sign
'€' => 'E',
// GBP (Pound) Sign
'£' => '',
// Vowels with diacritic (Vietnamese)
// unmarked
'Ơ' => 'O', 'ơ' => 'o',
'Ư' => 'U', 'ư' => 'u',
// grave accent
'Ầ' => 'A', 'ầ' => 'a',
'Ằ' => 'A', 'ằ' => 'a',
'Ề' => 'E', 'ề' => 'e',
'Ồ' => 'O', 'ồ' => 'o',
'Ờ' => 'O', 'ờ' => 'o',
'Ừ' => 'U', 'ừ' => 'u',
'Ỳ' => 'Y', 'ỳ' => 'y',
// hook
'Ả' => 'A', 'ả' => 'a',
'Ẩ' => 'A', 'ẩ' => 'a',
'Ẳ' => 'A', 'ẳ' => 'a',
'Ẻ' => 'E', 'ẻ' => 'e',
'Ể' => 'E', 'ể' => 'e',
'Ỉ' => 'I', 'ỉ' => 'i',
'Ỏ' => 'O', 'ỏ' => 'o',
'Ổ' => 'O', 'ổ' => 'o',
'Ở' => 'O', 'ở' => 'o',
'Ủ' => 'U', 'ủ' => 'u',
'Ử' => 'U', 'ử' => 'u',
'Ỷ' => 'Y', 'ỷ' => 'y',
// tilde
'Ẫ' => 'A', 'ẫ' => 'a',
'Ẵ' => 'A', 'ẵ' => 'a',
'Ẽ' => 'E', 'ẽ' => 'e',
'Ễ' => 'E', 'ễ' => 'e',
'Ỗ' => 'O', 'ỗ' => 'o',
'Ỡ' => 'O', 'ỡ' => 'o',
'Ữ' => 'U', 'ữ' => 'u',
'Ỹ' => 'Y', 'ỹ' => 'y',
// acute accent
'Ấ' => 'A', 'ấ' => 'a',
'Ắ' => 'A', 'ắ' => 'a',
'Ế' => 'E', 'ế' => 'e',
'Ố' => 'O', 'ố' => 'o',
'Ớ' => 'O', 'ớ' => 'o',
'Ứ' => 'U', 'ứ' => 'u',
// dot below
'Ạ' => 'A', 'ạ' => 'a',
'Ậ' => 'A', 'ậ' => 'a',
'Ặ' => 'A', 'ặ' => 'a',
'Ẹ' => 'E', 'ẹ' => 'e',
'Ệ' => 'E', 'ệ' => 'e',
'Ị' => 'I', 'ị' => 'i',
'Ọ' => 'O', 'ọ' => 'o',
'Ộ' => 'O', 'ộ' => 'o',
'Ợ' => 'O', 'ợ' => 'o',
'Ụ' => 'U', 'ụ' => 'u',
'Ự' => 'U', 'ự' => 'u',
'Ỵ' => 'Y', 'ỵ' => 'y',
// Vowels with diacritic (Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin)
'ɑ' => 'a',
// macron
'Ǖ' => 'U', 'ǖ' => 'u',
// acute accent
'Ǘ' => 'U', 'ǘ' => 'u',
// caron
'Ǎ' => 'A', 'ǎ' => 'a',
'Ǐ' => 'I', 'ǐ' => 'i',
'Ǒ' => 'O', 'ǒ' => 'o',
'Ǔ' => 'U', 'ǔ' => 'u',
'Ǚ' => 'U', 'ǚ' => 'u',
// grave accent
'Ǜ' => 'U', 'ǜ' => 'u',
);

$string = strtr($string, $chars);

return $string;
}

Answer 2

This error is probably due to a wrong implemantation of iconv() on your server (glibc instead of libiconv, you can check it in the output of phpinfo()). See here for more details.

You can also try :

$text = "Théâtre";
$text = iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT",$text); //$text = "Th'e^atre"
//Replace any character not in alphabet by an empty substring.
$text = preg_replace("#[^a-zA-z]#", "", $text); //$text = "Theatre"

echo $text;