Remove accents/diacritics in a string in JavaScript

Question

How do I remove accentuated characters from a string? Especially in IE6, I had something like this:

accentsTidy = function(s){
    var r=s.toLowerCase();
           


        

Answer 1

thanks to all
I use this version and say why (because I misses those explanations at the begining, so I try to help the next reader if he is as dull as me ...)

Remark : I wanted an efficient solution, so :

• only one regexp compilation (if needed)
• only one string scan for each string
• an efficient way to find the translated characters etc ...

My version is :
(there is no new technical trick inside it, only some selected ones + explanations why)

makeSortString = (function() {
    var translate_re = /[¹²³áàâãäåaaaÀÁÂÃÄÅAAAÆccç©CCÇÐÐèéê?ëeeeeeÈÊË?EEEEE€gGiìíîïìiiiÌÍÎÏ?ÌIIIlLnnñNNÑòóôõöoooøÒÓÔÕÖOOOØŒr®Ršs?ߊS?ùúûüuuuuÙÚÛÜUUUUýÿÝŸžzzŽZZ]/g;
    var translate = {
"¹":"1","²":"2","³":"3","á":"a","à":"a","â":"a","ã":"a","ä":"a","å":"a","a":"a","a":"a","a":"a","À":"a","Á":"a","Â":"a","Ã":"a","Ä":"a","Å":"a","A":"a","A":"a",
"A":"a","Æ":"a","c":"c","c":"c","ç":"c","©":"c","C":"c","C":"c","Ç":"c","Ð":"d","Ð":"d","è":"e","é":"e","ê":"e","?":"e","ë":"e","e":"e","e":"e","e":"e","e":"e",
"e":"e","È":"e","Ê":"e","Ë":"e","?":"e","E":"e","E":"e","E":"e","E":"e","E":"e","€":"e","g":"g","G":"g","i":"i","ì":"i","í":"i","î":"i","ï":"i","ì":"i","i":"i",
"i":"i","i":"i","Ì":"i","Í":"i","Î":"i","Ï":"i","?":"i","Ì":"i","I":"i","I":"i","I":"i","l":"l","L":"l","n":"n","n":"n","ñ":"n","N":"n","N":"n","Ñ":"n","ò":"o",
"ó":"o","ô":"o","õ":"o","ö":"o","o":"o","o":"o","o":"o","ø":"o","Ò":"o","Ó":"o","Ô":"o","Õ":"o","Ö":"o","O":"o","O":"o","O":"o","Ø":"o","Œ":"o","r":"r","®":"r",
"R":"r","š":"s","s":"s","?":"s","ß":"s","Š":"s","S":"s","?":"s","ù":"u","ú":"u","û":"u","ü":"u","u":"u","u":"u","u":"u","u":"u","Ù":"u","Ú":"u","Û":"u","Ü":"u",
"U":"u","U":"u","U":"u","U":"u","ý":"y","ÿ":"y","Ý":"y","Ÿ":"y","ž":"z","z":"z","z":"z","Ž":"z","Z":"z","Z":"z"
    };
    return function(s) {
        return(s.replace(translate_re, function(match){return translate[match];}) );
    }
})();

and I use it this way :

var without_accents = makeSortString("wïthêüÄTrèsBïgüeAk100t");
// I let you guess the result,
// no I was kidding you : I give you the result : witheuatresbigueak100t

Comments :

• Tthe instruction inside it is done once (after, makeSortString != undefined)
• function(){...} is stored once in makeSortString, so the "big" translate_re and translate objects are stored once
• When you call makeSortString('something') it call directly the inside function which calls only s.replace(...) : it is efficient
• s.replace uses regexp (the special syntax of var translate_re= .... is in fact equivalent to var translate_re = new RegExp("[¹....Z]","g"); but the compilation of the regexp is done once for all, and the scan of the s String is done one for a call of the function (not for every character as it would be in a loop)
• For each character found s.replace calls function(match) where parameter match contains the character found, and it call the corresponding translated character (translate[match])
• Translate[match] is probably efficient too as the javascript translate object is probably implemented by javascript with a hashtab or something equivalent and allow the program to find the translated character almost directly and not for instance through a loop on a array of all characters to find the right one (which would be awfully unefficient).