convert variation of letters to base letter in java

Question

is there a function that gives me for any "variation" of a letter, (like 'à', 'ä', etc) the base letter('a')? Of course i know how to create a function using switch but i'd have to mind every single variation.

Answer 1

you may utilise Apache Common String Utils

for eg:

  String accentLetter1 = "ä";
  String accentLetter2 = "à";
  System.out.println(org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils.stripAccents(accentLetter1));
  System.out.println(org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils.stripAccents(accentLetter2));

displays

a
a

artifact is available in Maven Repository