php function to make slug (url string)

Question

function gen_slug($str){
    # special accents
    $a = array('À','Á','Â','Ã','Ä','Å','Æ','Ç','È','É','Ê','Ë','Ì','Í','Î','Ï','Ð','Ñ','Ò','Ó','Ô','Õ','Ö','Ø','Ù','Ú','Û','Ü','Ý','ß','à','á','â','ã','ä','å','æ','ç','è','é','ê','ë','ì','í','î','ï','ñ','ò','ó','ô','õ','ö','ø','ù','ú','û','ü','ý','ÿ','A','a','A','a','A','a','C','c','C','c','C','c','C','c','D','d','Ð','d','E','e','E','e','E','e','E','e','E','e','G','g','G','g','G','g','G','g','H','h','H','h','I','i','I','i','I','i','I','i','I','i','?','?','J','j','K','k','L','l','L','l','L','l','?','?','L','l','N','n','N','n','N','n','?','O','o','O','o','O','o','Œ','œ','R','r','R','r','R','r','S','s','S','s','S','s','Š','š','T','t','T','t','T','t','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','W','w','Y','y','Ÿ','Z','z','Z','z','Ž','ž','?','ƒ','O','o','U','u','A','a','I','i','O','o','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','?','?','?','?','?','?');
    $b = array('A','A','A','A','A','A','AE','C','E','E','E','E','I','I','I','I','D','N','O','O','O','O','O','O','U','U','U','U','Y','s','a','a','a','a','a','a','ae','c','e','e','e','e','i','i','i','i','n','o','o','o','o','o','o','u','u','u','u','y','y','A','a','A','a','A','a','C','c','C','c','C','c','C','c','D','d','D','d','E','e','E','e','E','e','E','e','E','e','G','g','G','g','G','g','G','g','H','h','H','h','I','i','I','i','I','i','I','i','I','i','IJ','ij','J','j','K','k','L','l','L','l','L','l','L','l','l','l','N','n','N','n','N','n','n','O','o','O','o','O','o','OE','oe','R','r','R','r','R','r','S','s','S','s','S','s','S','s','T','t','T','t','T','t','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','W','w','Y','y','Y','Z','z','Z','z','Z','z','s','f','O','o','U','u','A','a','I','i','O','o','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','U','u','A','a','AE','ae','O','o');
    return strtolower(preg_replace(array('/[^a-zA-Z0-9 -]/','/[ -]+/','/^-|-$/'),array('','-',''),str_replace($a,$b,$str)));
}

Works great, but i've found some cases in which it fails:

echo gen_slug('andrés'); returns andras instead of andres

why? any ideas on the preg_replace parameters?

Answer 1

Don't use preg_replace for this. There's a php function built just for the task: strtr() http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtr.php

Taken from the comments in the above link (and I tested it myself; it works:

function normalize ($string) {
    $table = array(
        'Š'=>'S', 'š'=>'s', 'Đ'=>'Dj', 'đ'=>'dj', 'Ž'=>'Z', 'ž'=>'z', 'Č'=>'C', 'č'=>'c', 'Ć'=>'C', 'ć'=>'c',
        'À'=>'A', 'Á'=>'A', 'Â'=>'A', 'Ã'=>'A', 'Ä'=>'A', 'Å'=>'A', 'Æ'=>'A', 'Ç'=>'C', 'È'=>'E', 'É'=>'E',
        'Ê'=>'E', 'Ë'=>'E', 'Ì'=>'I', 'Í'=>'I', 'Î'=>'I', 'Ï'=>'I', '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'=>'B', 'ß'=>'Ss',
        'à'=>'a', 'á'=>'a', 'â'=>'a', 'ã'=>'a', 'ä'=>'a', 'å'=>'a', 'æ'=>'a', 'ç'=>'c', 'è'=>'e', 'é'=>'e',
        'ê'=>'e', 'ë'=>'e', 'ì'=>'i', 'í'=>'i', 'î'=>'i', 'ï'=>'i', 'ð'=>'o', 'ñ'=>'n', 'ò'=>'o', 'ó'=>'o',
        'ô'=>'o', 'õ'=>'o', 'ö'=>'o', 'ø'=>'o', 'ù'=>'u', 'ú'=>'u', 'û'=>'u', 'ý'=>'y', 'ý'=>'y', 'þ'=>'b',
        'ÿ'=>'y', 'Ŕ'=>'R', 'ŕ'=>'r',
    );

    return strtr($string, $table);
}

Answer 2

Instead of a lengthy replace, try this one:

static public function slugify($text)
{ 
  // replace non letter or digits by -
  $text = preg_replace('~[^\\pL\d]+~u', '-', $text);

  // trim
  $text = trim($text, '-');

  // transliterate
  $text = iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//TRANSLIT', $text);

  // lowercase
  $text = strtolower($text);

  // remove unwanted characters
  $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w]+~', '', $text);

  if (empty($text))
  {
    return 'n-a';
  }

  return $text;
}

It was taken from symfony's jobeet tutorial.

Answer 3

You could have a look at Normalizer::normalize(), see here. It just needs to load the intl module for PHP