Converting Java String to ascii

Question

I need to convert Strings that consists of some letters specific to certain languages (like HÄSTDJUR - note Ä) to a String without those special le

Answer 1

I'd suggest a mapping, of special characters, to the ones you want.

Ä --> A
é --> e
A --> A (exactly the same)
etc...

And then you can just call your mapping over your text (in pseudocode):

for letter in string:
   newString += map(letter)

Effectively, you need to create a set of rules for what character maps to the ASCII equivalent.