How can I convert non-Latin characters to ASCII equivalents in PHP?

PHP Foreign Character Removal

For situations where URLs and other user-facing content must be devoid of non-Latin characters, finding a solution to convert these characters to their ASCII equivalents becomes essential. Despite extensive online research, finding a comprehensive list or solution has proven to be a challenge.

Solution: Transliteration Using Iconv

Iconv, a versatile library for character conversion, provides a solution tailored to this specific need through its transliteration encoding capability. By appending "//"TRANSLIT" to the target character set during conversion, iconv attempts to approximate any unrepresentable characters with visually similar Latin characters.

Example

<code class="php"><?php
// Define the original string containing non-Latin characters
$foreignString = 'אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשת';

// Perform transliteration using iconv
$latinString = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $foreignString);

// Print the transliterated string with only ASCII characters
echo $latinString; // Output: AbgdHzHtyklmnSpFqkRSt
?></code>

This solution effectively removes all foreign characters from the input string, ensuring that URLs and other content meet the required ASCII-only restriction.

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