When using preg_replace I get double characters...?

Question

When I use the following script, I get double characters. Why?

$clean_lastname = "Dür";
$clean_lastname = preg_replace("/[ùúûü]/", "u", $clean_lastname);
echo $clean_lastname;

Output: Duur

I want it to be Dur.

I am still doing something wrong... What's up with the 'putting one value of an array in the preg function?

$clean_lastname = "Boerée";
$l = 0;
$pattern = array('[ÀÁÂÃÄÅ]','[Ç]','[ÈÉÊË]','[ÌÍÎÏ]','[Ñ]','[ÒÓÔÕÖØ]','[Ý]','[ß]','[àáâãäå]','[ç]','[èéêë]','[ìíîï]','[ñ]','[òóôõöø]','[ùúûü]','[ýÿ]');
$replace = array(A,C,E,I,N,O,Y,S,a,c,e,i,n,o,u,y);

foreach ($pattern as $wierdchar)
{
    $clean_lastname = preg_replace('/$wierdchar/u', '$replace[$l]', $clean_lastname);
    $l++;
}

//$clean_lastname = preg_replace('/[èéêë]/u', 'e', $clean_lastname);

//$clean_lastname = strtr($clean_lastname, "ùúûü","uuuu");
echo $clean_lastname;

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:50

2

$clean_lastname = str_replace(array('ù', 'ú', 'û', 'ü', 'Ù', 'Ú', 'Û', 'Ü'), array('u', 'u', 'u', 'u', 'U', 'U', 'U', 'U'), $clean_lastname);

// OR to solve your initial issue:

$clean_lastname = preg_replace('/[ùúûü]/u', 'u', $clean_lastname);

answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:50

Paul Norman

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I solved it!! i need preg_replace with a u modifier!! Thank you Soooo!! much! i was really lost!! – Thijs Dec 16 '10 at 18:00

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

2

The only situation I can image this to happen is when your two strings (the input string and the pattern) have a different character encoding or both are UTF-8 but you didn’t specify it properly.

Because in the latter case, "Dür" is equivalent to "D\xC3\xBCr" (ü is encoded with the two byte sequence 0xC3BC) and the pattern "/[ùúûü]/" is equivalent to "/[\xC3\xB9\xC3\xBA\xC3\xBB\xC3\xBC]/". Since each byte specified by the escape sequence \xHH is treated as a single character, this yields the following result:

echo preg_replace("/[\xC3\xB9\xC3\xBA\xC3\xBB\xC3\xBC]/", "u", "D\xC3\xBCr");  // Duur

So when working with UTF-8 make sure to set the u modifier flag so that the pattern and input string is treated as UTF-8 encoded:

"/[ùúûü]/u"

Edit Now that you clarified your intentions and you seem to try to implement some kind of transliteration, you should take a look at iconv and it’s ability to transliterate:

iconv("UTF-8", "US-ASCII//TRANSLIT", $str)

See also other related topics like:

edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Community

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answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:54

Gumbo

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I am getting there... so if i am right...: I should type proper UTF-8 encoded characters in the strtr function... Then it wil work? – Thijs Dec 16 '10 at 17:38
@Thijs: No, you actually just need to use the *u* modifier in your pattern to have the pattern and subject string being treated as UTF-8 encoded. And no, `strtr` is a single-byte string function but UTF-8 is a multi-byte string encoding. You shouldn’t use single-byte string functions with multi-byte string encodings. – Gumbo Dec 16 '10 at 17:46
How do i do that? I am really getting lost here, i got the exact same characters in my php programm and it keeps not working... :( – Thijs Dec 16 '10 at 17:49
@Thijs: Are you sure you’re using UTF-8? – Gumbo Dec 16 '10 at 17:53

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 17 '11 at 17:20

1

<?php
    $vowels = array("ù","ú","û","ü" );
    $consonents = array("u","u","u","u");
    $clean_lastname = "Dür";
    echo str_replace( $vowels, $consonents, $clean_lastname);
?>

edited Feb 17 '11 at 17:20

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:45

Pradeep Singh

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:52

1

stick with your original strtr

$clean_lastname = "Dür Dùr Dúr Dûr";
$clean_lastname = strtr($clean_lastname, "ùúûü", "uuuu");
echo $clean_lastname;

answered Dec 16 '10 at 16:52

ajreal

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When using preg_replace I get double characters...?

4 Answers4