CFLib.org – Common Function Library Project

Description:
Replaces accented characters in a string with their closest non-accented equivalent, such as French, Spanish and German vowels. Useful when creating filenames, etc. from people's names.

Return Values:
Returns a string.

Example:

<cfoutput>#deAccent('Pérez')#</cfoutput>

Parameters:

Full UDF Source:

/**
 * Replaces accented characters with their non accented closest equivalents.
 * version 1.0 by Rachel Lehman
 * version 1.1 by Pat Branley (improved portability, fixed bug with "x" remapping
 * version 1.2 by Nathan Dintenfass (used more thorough Java-based approach)
 * 
 * @param str      String within which to replace accented characters (Required)
 * @return Returns a string. 
 * @author Rachel Lehman (raelehman@gmail.com) 
 * @version 1.2, December 20, 2012 
 */
function deAccent(str){
    //based on the approach found here: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1215117/894061
    var Normalizer = createObject("java","java.text.Normalizer");
    var NormalizerForm = createObject("java","java.text.Normalizer$Form");
    var normalizedString = Normalizer.normalize(str, createObject("java","java.text.Normalizer$Form").NFD);
    var pattern = createObject("java","java.util.regex.Pattern").compile("\p{InCombiningDiacriticalMarks}+");
    return pattern.matcher(normalizedString).replaceAll("");
}