UTF8 Character Coversion (MSWord Characters too)

[-Oz-]

I wrote a function that will convert all the "problem" characters into their &blah; text. This makes XML feeds valid and eliminates problems with MSWord's smart characters. Feel free to use the function as you see fit (you can even remove the OzTheory.com part.

function utf8encode($text=""){
    //Compiled by OzTheory.com
      $chars=array(
          'Ò' => 'Ò',
          'Ó' => 'Ó',
          'Ô' => 'Ô',
          'Õ' => 'Õ',
          'Ø' => 'Ø',
          'Ù' => 'Ù',
          'Ú' => 'Ú',
          'Û' => 'Û',
          'Ü' => 'Ü',
          'ß' => 'ß',
          'à' => 'à',
          'á' => 'á',
          'â' => 'â',
          'ã' => 'ã',
          'ä' => 'ä',
          'å' => 'å',
          'æ' => 'æ',
          'ç' => 'ç',
          'è' => 'è',
          'é' => 'é',
          'ê' => 'ê',
          'ë' => 'ë',
          'ì' => 'ì',
          'í' => 'í',
          'î' => 'î',
          'ï' => 'ï',
          'ñ' => 'ñ',
          'ò' => 'ò',
          'ó' => 'ó',
          'ô' => 'ô',
          'õ' => 'õ',
          'ö' => 'ö',
          '÷' => '÷',
          'ø' => 'ø',
          'ù' => 'ù',
          'ú' => 'ú',
          'û' => 'û',
          'ü' => 'ü',
          'ÿ' => 'ÿ',
          '‚' => '‚',
          'ƒ' => 'ƒ',
          '„' => '„',
          '…' => '…',
          '†' => '†',
          '‡' => '‡',
          'ˆ' => 'ˆ',
          '‰' => '‰',
          'Œ' => 'Œ',
          '–' => '–',
          '—' => '—',
          '˜' => '˜',
          '™' => '™',
          'œ' => 'œ',
          'Ÿ' => 'Ÿ',
          'Ñ' => 'Ñ',
          'Ï' => 'Ï',
          'Î' => 'Î',
          'Í' => 'Í',
          'Ì' => 'Ì',
          'Ë' => 'Ë',
          'Ê' => 'Ê',
          'É' => 'É',
          'È' => 'È',
          'Ç' => 'Ç',
          'Æ' => 'Æ',
          'Å' => 'Å',
          'Ä' => 'Ä',
          'Ã' => 'Ã',
          'Â' => 'Â',
          'Á' => 'Á',
          'À' => 'À',
          '¿' => '¿',
          'µ' => 'µ',
          '±' => '±',
          '°' => '°',
          '®' => '®',
          '©' => '©',
          '¨' => '¨',
          '§' => '§',
          '¥' => '¥',
          '£' => '£',
          '€' => '€',
          '¢' => '¢',
          '¡' => '¡',
          '’' => "'",
          '‘' => "'",
          '“' => '"',
          '”' => '"',
          '…' => '...',
          "'" => '’'
      );
      $text=str_replace(array_keys($chars),array_values($chars),$text);
      return $text;
  } 

I remember people talking about things like this awhile ago. Hopefully people find it useful.

[Jonathan]

Nice function, Oz/Dan I may use this on a project I'm working on...

[timg]

So...

How would you use this? If you were including a Word or XML file somehow?

[-Oz-]

as you take the data out from the mysql database, or put it in just say:

$string = utf8encode($string); 

[Frank Hagan]

Often, you need to do this for forms that ask for more than a single word or two because people will sometimes write their information in Word and cut and paste into the web form.

[sdjl]

XML is a little picky when it comes to data inside it's fields.
Even if you use CDATA it still fails if certain characters are present.

Therefore, it's necessary to format all characters to make sure that they are usable within and XML file