PHP function to make slug (URL string)

Question

I want to have a function to create slugs from Unicode strings, e.g. gen_slug('Andrés Cortez') should return andres-cortez. How should I do that?

I copied your code here: http://writecodeonline.com/php/ and it outputs `andres`. Are you sure your input is exactly "andrés"? — nico, Jun 02 '10 at 05:51
in plain php it works. sorry, i forgot to mention that the function is being executed from an ajax function server side. Maybe the problem is happening because of a charset feature? — Andres SK, Jun 02 '10 at 05:55
here is a good working solution for cyrilic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7461406/cyrillic-transliteration-in-php — d.raev, Jan 05 '15 at 08:19
Do not forget to add setlocale(LC_ALL, 'en_GB'); if you receive to much sings '?' after function use. 'en_GB' your expected locale. — KorbenDallas, Apr 28 '15 at 12:41
Also see [How Stack Overflow generates its SEO-friendly URLs?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/25259/how-does-stack-overflow-generate-its-seo-friendly-urls). — Gerard Roche, Sep 12 '16 at 02:42
Instead of building your own solution, you can use an existing library like https://github.com/cocur/slugify or https://github.com/ausi/slug-generator — ausi, Oct 30 '17 at 22:06

Maerlyn · Accepted Answer · 2021-05-07T04:23:38.967

488

Instead of a lengthy replace, try this one:

public static function slugify($text, string $divider = '-')
{
  // replace non letter or digits by divider
  $text = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d]+~u', $divider, $text);

  // transliterate
  $text = iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//TRANSLIT', $text);

  // remove unwanted characters
  $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w]+~', '', $text);

  // trim
  $text = trim($text, $divider);

  // remove duplicate divider
  $text = preg_replace('~-+~', $divider, $text);

  // lowercase
  $text = strtolower($text);

  if (empty($text)) {
    return 'n-a';
  }

  return $text;
}

This was based off the one in Symfony's Jobeet tutorial.

edited May 07 '21 at 04:23

answered Jun 02 '10 at 07:57

Maerlyn

32,079
17
92
82

1

you sure? the first preg_replace wipes all normal text too :s – Andres SK Jun 02 '10 at 15:26
4

No, the first preg_replace wipes everything that's not a character or a digit. Note the `^` just after the opening bracket - it reverses the match. – Maerlyn Jun 02 '10 at 18:34
12

`iconv` will not convert correctly if `$text` contains characters that don't have ascii equivalent. For example `iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//TRANSLIT', "EFI收购Cretaprint")` will return `"EFI"` and leak a warning. – Kendall Hopkins Feb 14 '12 at 02:12
2

@Maerlyn and andufo, I think there is an extra "\" though in the first regex, correct? Should be '~[^\pL\d]+~u' ? – groovenectar May 10 '12 at 19:10
No, it's there because you need to escape the backslash. – Maerlyn May 11 '12 at 06:41
1

Best slug function I've seen... I'd maybe make sure the slug is a certain length however. – Joseph Szymborski Aug 20 '13 at 18:41
Confirming that it's not working with Cyrillic and probably other non ASCII encodings. In my case a problem was with `í` letter. – Vlada Katlinskaya Mar 12 '15 at 07:31
2

`$text = trim($text, '-');` should be at the end, otherwise `Foo 收` becomes `foo-`. Also, `Foo 收 Bar` becomes `foo--bar` (the repeated `-` seems redundant). – rybo111 Jul 03 '15 at 13:36
2

No no no no this does not work. The first expression DOES replace all non letter characters. Should not be accepted. – Romain Bruckert Jan 24 '16 at 11:59
Just want to add that I also used `utf8_encode($text)` before the `iconv` line so that it would not produce an empty string. – James Apr 15 '16 at 13:05
I tried it with WordPress used WP All Import plugin but I had problem with latin characters. – Harkály Gergő Nov 11 '16 at 11:36
mb_ereg_replace will help instead of preg_replace – mindsupport Dec 01 '16 at 12:29
@mindsupport ereg was deprecated a long time ago, don't use it. – Maerlyn Dec 01 '16 at 15:19
@Maerlyn Can we also use same function for validate the slug ? like `if (slugify($text) !== 'n-a'){echo 'Correct Slug';}` – Ayaz Shah Aug 24 '17 at 07:06
PHP Parse error: syntax error, unexpected 'public' (T_PUBLIC) – Kaspar L. Palgi Apr 28 '19 at 14:52
@KasparL.Palgi remove that if you're not putting it in a class. `static` as well. – Maerlyn Apr 28 '19 at 19:03

score 52 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

52

Update

Since this answer is getting some attention, I'm adding some explanation.

The solution provided will essentially replace everything except A-Z, a-z, 0-9, & - (hyphen) with - (hyphen). So, it won't work properly with other unicode characters (which are valid characters for a URL slug/string). A common scenario is when the input string contains non-English characters.

Only use this solution if you're confident that the input string won't have unicode characters which you might want to be a part of output/slug.

Eg. "नारी शक्ति" will become "----------" (all hyphens) instead of "नारी-शक्ति" (valid URL slug).

Original Answer

How about...

$slug = strtolower(trim(preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9-]+/', '-', $string)));

?

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Dec 12 '15 at 20:18

TheKalpit

1,178
1
12
23

7

Actually it does. This thread is sooooo strange... the accepted answer does not work, all the other kinda of do... – Romain Bruckert Jan 24 '16 at 12:00
It provides an answer to the question asked in the title which is what led me here and to this answer, which was perfect for my needs. – AGB Feb 02 '17 at 22:15
1

Just adding to this, not 100% tested, I found if you initially replaced all spaces with a dash, then used this function to remove any other characters to replace them with an empty value eg. '' – Jacob David C. Cunningham Oct 03 '17 at 07:45
`strtolower(trim(preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9-]+/', '-', "Étienne")))` returns `"-tienne"` instead of `"etienne"`, so it does not works with accented characters. – Julien Jan 31 '19 at 18:55
1

slugs generated this way are in no way SEO-friendly or user-friendly. Also, they generate a lot of collisions in many languages, many more than proper transliteration would cause. – Jun 10 '19 at 09:38

score 49 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 10 '19 at 09:34

49

If you have intl extension installed, you can use Transliterator::transliterate function to create a slug easily.

<?php
$string = 'Namnet på bildtävlingen';
$slug = \Transliterator::createFromRules(
    ':: Any-Latin;'
    . ':: NFD;'
    . ':: [:Nonspacing Mark:] Remove;'
    . ':: NFC;'
    . ':: [:Punctuation:] Remove;'
    . ':: Lower();'
    . '[:Separator:] > \'-\''
)
    ->transliterate( $string );
echo $slug; // namnet-pa-bildtavlingen
?>

edited Jun 10 '19 at 09:34

answered Nov 11 '12 at 14:19

hdogan

837
6
6

18

For those arriving at this post years later the intl extension is bundled with PHP since 5.3.0. http://php.net/manual/en/intl.requirements.php – Jessedc Aug 05 '15 at 06:59
this however removes dash (-), e.g. $string = "My-string hello" returns "mystring-hello" – undefinedman Aug 28 '20 at 12:27
To learn about available rules, explore this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/17015063/6850820 – Georgy Ivanov Apr 16 '21 at 19:48

Imran Omar Bukhsh · Answer 4 · 2013-07-29T01:53:12.490

Note: I have taken this from wordpress and it works!!

Use it like this:

echo sanitize('testing this link');

Code

//taken from wordpress
function utf8_uri_encode( $utf8_string, $length = 0 ) {
    $unicode = '';
    $values = array();
    $num_octets = 1;
    $unicode_length = 0;

    $string_length = strlen( $utf8_string );
    for ($i = 0; $i < $string_length; $i++ ) {

        $value = ord( $utf8_string[ $i ] );

        if ( $value < 128 ) {
            if ( $length && ( $unicode_length >= $length ) )
                break;
            $unicode .= chr($value);
            $unicode_length++;
        } else {
            if ( count( $values ) == 0 ) $num_octets = ( $value < 224 ) ? 2 : 3;

            $values[] = $value;

            if ( $length && ( $unicode_length + ($num_octets * 3) ) > $length )
                break;
            if ( count( $values ) == $num_octets ) {
                if ($num_octets == 3) {
                    $unicode .= '%' . dechex($values[0]) . '%' . dechex($values[1]) . '%' . dechex($values[2]);
                    $unicode_length += 9;
                } else {
                    $unicode .= '%' . dechex($values[0]) . '%' . dechex($values[1]);
                    $unicode_length += 6;
                }

                $values = array();
                $num_octets = 1;
            }
        }
    }

    return $unicode;
}

//taken from wordpress
function seems_utf8($str) {
    $length = strlen($str);
    for ($i=0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $c = ord($str[$i]);
        if ($c < 0x80) $n = 0; # 0bbbbbbb
        elseif (($c & 0xE0) == 0xC0) $n=1; # 110bbbbb
        elseif (($c & 0xF0) == 0xE0) $n=2; # 1110bbbb
        elseif (($c & 0xF8) == 0xF0) $n=3; # 11110bbb
        elseif (($c & 0xFC) == 0xF8) $n=4; # 111110bb
        elseif (($c & 0xFE) == 0xFC) $n=5; # 1111110b
        else return false; # Does not match any model
        for ($j=0; $j<$n; $j++) { # n bytes matching 10bbbbbb follow ?
            if ((++$i == $length) || ((ord($str[$i]) & 0xC0) != 0x80))
                return false;
        }
    }
    return true;
}

//function sanitize_title_with_dashes taken from wordpress
function sanitize($title) {
    $title = strip_tags($title);
    // Preserve escaped octets.
    $title = preg_replace('|%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])|', '---$1---', $title);
    // Remove percent signs that are not part of an octet.
    $title = str_replace('%', '', $title);
    // Restore octets.
    $title = preg_replace('|---([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])---|', '%$1', $title);

    if (seems_utf8($title)) {
        if (function_exists('mb_strtolower')) {
            $title = mb_strtolower($title, 'UTF-8');
        }
        $title = utf8_uri_encode($title, 200);
    }

    $title = strtolower($title);
    $title = preg_replace('/&.+?;/', '', $title); // kill entities
    $title = str_replace('.', '-', $title);
    $title = preg_replace('/[^%a-z0-9 _-]/', '', $title);
    $title = preg_replace('/\s+/', '-', $title);
    $title = preg_replace('|-+|', '-', $title);
    $title = trim($title, '-');

    return $title;
}

In WordPress 3.9.1 (which I'm using) I have to call `sanitize_title_with_dashes($string, null, 'save')` (note the extra parameters), otherwise you get some messy character codes like `telstra%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%98all-roles-flex%e2%80%99`. Not very pretty. :-( — Simon East, Jul 11 '14 at 04:49
[See the related answer on this page](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2955251/php-function-to-make-slug-url-string/26286437#26286437) from @czerasz. Links to latest: [formatting.php](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/formatting.php) also [functions.php](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/functions.php) — iDev247, Feb 27 '15 at 22:32
`sanitize` is a strange, forgettable function name to generate a slug. — rybo111, Jul 03 '15 at 13:52

Vazgen Manukyan · Answer 5 · 2019-08-21T13:39:13.147

12

It is always a good idea to use existing solutions that are being supported by a lot of high-level developers. The most popular one is https://github.com/cocur/slugify. First of all, it supports more than one language, and it is being updated.

If you do not want to use the whole package, you can copy the part that you need.

edited Aug 21 '19 at 13:39

answered Apr 25 '16 at 20:52

Vazgen Manukyan

1,162
1
10
16

its overkill... we just need a simple, lowercase, no spaces / weird characters function. – Sagive SEO Jan 21 '20 at 09:20

score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 27 '12 at 16:21

Here is an other one, for example " Title with strange characters ééé A X Z" becomes "title-with-strange-characters-eee-a-x-z".

/**
 * Function used to create a slug associated to an "ugly" string.
 *
 * @param string $string the string to transform.
 *
 * @return string the resulting slug.
 */
public static function createSlug($string) {

    $table = array(
            'Š'=>'S', 'š'=>'s', 'Đ'=>'Dj', 'đ'=>'dj', 'Ž'=>'Z', 'ž'=>'z', 'Č'=>'C', 'č'=>'c', 'Ć'=>'C', 'ć'=>'c',
            'À'=>'A', 'Á'=>'A', 'Â'=>'A', 'Ã'=>'A', 'Ä'=>'A', 'Å'=>'A', 'Æ'=>'A', 'Ç'=>'C', 'È'=>'E', 'É'=>'E',
            'Ê'=>'E', 'Ë'=>'E', 'Ì'=>'I', 'Í'=>'I', 'Î'=>'I', 'Ï'=>'I', 'Ñ'=>'N', 'Ò'=>'O', 'Ó'=>'O', 'Ô'=>'O',
            'Õ'=>'O', 'Ö'=>'O', 'Ø'=>'O', 'Ù'=>'U', 'Ú'=>'U', 'Û'=>'U', 'Ü'=>'U', 'Ý'=>'Y', 'Þ'=>'B', 'ß'=>'Ss',
            'à'=>'a', 'á'=>'a', 'â'=>'a', 'ã'=>'a', 'ä'=>'a', 'å'=>'a', 'æ'=>'a', 'ç'=>'c', 'è'=>'e', 'é'=>'e',
            'ê'=>'e', 'ë'=>'e', 'ì'=>'i', 'í'=>'i', 'î'=>'i', 'ï'=>'i', 'ð'=>'o', 'ñ'=>'n', 'ò'=>'o', 'ó'=>'o',
            'ô'=>'o', 'õ'=>'o', 'ö'=>'o', 'ø'=>'o', 'ù'=>'u', 'ú'=>'u', 'û'=>'u', 'ý'=>'y', 'ý'=>'y', 'þ'=>'b',
            'ÿ'=>'y', 'Ŕ'=>'R', 'ŕ'=>'r', '/' => '-', ' ' => '-'
    );

    // -- Remove duplicated spaces
    $stripped = preg_replace(array('/\s{2,}/', '/[\t\n]/'), ' ', $string);

    // -- Returns the slug
    return strtolower(strtr($string, $table));


}

Renamed `$string` and `$stripped` to `$text` and added `$text = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d]+~u', '-', $text);` before return. Now it works perfectly. Thank you. — s3c, Apr 01 '21 at 10:15

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 09 '14 at 19:27

An updated version of @Imran Omar Bukhsh code (from the latest Wordpress (4.0) branch):

<?php

// Add methods to slugify taken from Wordpress:
// - https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/formatting.php 
// - https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/functions.php

/**
 * Set the mbstring internal encoding to a binary safe encoding when func_overload
 * is enabled.
 *
 * When mbstring.func_overload is in use for multi-byte encodings, the results from
 * strlen() and similar functions respect the utf8 characters, causing binary data
 * to return incorrect lengths.
 *
 * This function overrides the mbstring encoding to a binary-safe encoding, and
 * resets it to the users expected encoding afterwards through the
 * `reset_mbstring_encoding` function.
 *
 * It is safe to recursively call this function, however each
 * `mbstring_binary_safe_encoding()` call must be followed up with an equal number
 * of `reset_mbstring_encoding()` calls.
 *
 * @since 3.7.0
 *
 * @see reset_mbstring_encoding()
 *
 * @param bool $reset Optional. Whether to reset the encoding back to a previously-set encoding.
 *                    Default false.
 */
function mbstring_binary_safe_encoding( $reset = false ) {
  static $encodings = array();
  static $overloaded = null;

  if ( is_null( $overloaded ) )
    $overloaded = function_exists( 'mb_internal_encoding' ) && ( ini_get( 'mbstring.func_overload' ) & 2 );

  if ( false === $overloaded )
    return;

  if ( ! $reset ) {
    $encoding = mb_internal_encoding();
    array_push( $encodings, $encoding );
    mb_internal_encoding( 'ISO-8859-1' );
  }

  if ( $reset && $encodings ) {
    $encoding = array_pop( $encodings );
    mb_internal_encoding( $encoding );
  }
}

/**
 * Reset the mbstring internal encoding to a users previously set encoding.
 *
 * @see mbstring_binary_safe_encoding()
 *
 * @since 3.7.0
 */
function reset_mbstring_encoding() {
  mbstring_binary_safe_encoding( true );
}


/**
 * Checks to see if a string is utf8 encoded.
 *
 * NOTE: This function checks for 5-Byte sequences, UTF8
 *       has Bytes Sequences with a maximum length of 4.
 *
 * @author bmorel at ssi dot fr (modified)
 * @since 1.2.1
 *
 * @param string $str The string to be checked
 * @return bool True if $str fits a UTF-8 model, false otherwise.
 */
function seems_utf8($str) {
  mbstring_binary_safe_encoding();
  $length = strlen($str);
  reset_mbstring_encoding();
  for ($i=0; $i < $length; $i++) {
    $c = ord($str[$i]);
    if ($c < 0x80) $n = 0; # 0bbbbbbb
    elseif (($c & 0xE0) == 0xC0) $n=1; # 110bbbbb
    elseif (($c & 0xF0) == 0xE0) $n=2; # 1110bbbb
    elseif (($c & 0xF8) == 0xF0) $n=3; # 11110bbb
    elseif (($c & 0xFC) == 0xF8) $n=4; # 111110bb
    elseif (($c & 0xFE) == 0xFC) $n=5; # 1111110b
    else return false; # Does not match any model
    for ($j=0; $j<$n; $j++) { # n bytes matching 10bbbbbb follow ?
      if ((++$i == $length) || ((ord($str[$i]) & 0xC0) != 0x80))
        return false;
    }
  }
  return true;
}


/**
 * Encode the Unicode values to be used in the URI.
 *
 * @since 1.5.0
 *
 * @param string $utf8_string
 * @param int $length Max length of the string
 * @return string String with Unicode encoded for URI.
 */
function utf8_uri_encode( $utf8_string, $length = 0 ) {
  $unicode = '';
  $values = array();
  $num_octets = 1;
  $unicode_length = 0;

  mbstring_binary_safe_encoding();
  $string_length = strlen( $utf8_string );
  reset_mbstring_encoding();

  for ($i = 0; $i < $string_length; $i++ ) {

    $value = ord( $utf8_string[ $i ] );

    if ( $value < 128 ) {
      if ( $length && ( $unicode_length >= $length ) )
        break;
      $unicode .= chr($value);
      $unicode_length++;
    } else {
      if ( count( $values ) == 0 ) $num_octets = ( $value < 224 ) ? 2 : 3;

      $values[] = $value;

      if ( $length && ( $unicode_length + ($num_octets * 3) ) > $length )
        break;
      if ( count( $values ) == $num_octets ) {
        if ($num_octets == 3) {
          $unicode .= '%' . dechex($values[0]) . '%' . dechex($values[1]) . '%' . dechex($values[2]);
          $unicode_length += 9;
        } else {
          $unicode .= '%' . dechex($values[0]) . '%' . dechex($values[1]);
          $unicode_length += 6;
        }

        $values = array();
        $num_octets = 1;
      }
    }
  }

  return $unicode;
}


/**
 * Sanitizes a title, replacing whitespace and a few other characters with dashes.
 *
 * Limits the output to alphanumeric characters, underscore (_) and dash (-).
 * Whitespace becomes a dash.
 *
 * @since 1.2.0
 *
 * @param string $title The title to be sanitized.
 * @param string $raw_title Optional. Not used.
 * @param string $context Optional. The operation for which the string is sanitized.
 * @return string The sanitized title.
 */
function sanitize_title_with_dashes( $title, $raw_title = '', $context = 'display' ) {
  $title = strip_tags($title);
  // Preserve escaped octets.
  $title = preg_replace('|%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])|', '---$1---', $title);
  // Remove percent signs that are not part of an octet.
  $title = str_replace('%', '', $title);
  // Restore octets.
  $title = preg_replace('|---([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])---|', '%$1', $title);

  if (seems_utf8($title)) {
    if (function_exists('mb_strtolower')) {
      $title = mb_strtolower($title, 'UTF-8');
    }
    $title = utf8_uri_encode($title, 200);
  }

  $title = strtolower($title);
  $title = preg_replace('/&.+?;/', '', $title); // kill entities
  $title = str_replace('.', '-', $title);

  if ( 'save' == $context ) {
    // Convert nbsp, ndash and mdash to hyphens
    $title = str_replace( array( '%c2%a0', '%e2%80%93', '%e2%80%94' ), '-', $title );

    // Strip these characters entirely
    $title = str_replace( array(
      // iexcl and iquest
      '%c2%a1', '%c2%bf',
      // angle quotes
      '%c2%ab', '%c2%bb', '%e2%80%b9', '%e2%80%ba',
      // curly quotes
      '%e2%80%98', '%e2%80%99', '%e2%80%9c', '%e2%80%9d',
      '%e2%80%9a', '%e2%80%9b', '%e2%80%9e', '%e2%80%9f',
      // copy, reg, deg, hellip and trade
      '%c2%a9', '%c2%ae', '%c2%b0', '%e2%80%a6', '%e2%84%a2',
      // acute accents
      '%c2%b4', '%cb%8a', '%cc%81', '%cd%81',
      // grave accent, macron, caron
      '%cc%80', '%cc%84', '%cc%8c',
    ), '', $title );

    // Convert times to x
    $title = str_replace( '%c3%97', 'x', $title );
  }

  $title = preg_replace('/[^%a-z0-9 _-]/', '', $title);
  $title = preg_replace('/\s+/', '-', $title);
  $title = preg_replace('|-+|', '-', $title);
  $title = trim($title, '-');

  return $title;
}

$title = '#PFW Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2015';
echo "title -> slug: \n". $title ." -> ". sanitize_title_with_dashes($title);
echo "\n\n";
$title = '«GQ»: Elyas M\'Barek gehört zu Männern des Jahres';
echo "title -> slug: \n". $title ." -> ". sanitize_title_with_dashes($title);

View online example.

Links to latest: [formatting.php](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/formatting.php) also [functions.php](https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/master/wp-includes/functions.php) — iDev247, Feb 27 '15 at 22:29
Second example fails for me, returns `%c2%abgq%c2%bb-elyas-mbarek-geh%c3%b6rt-zu-m%c3%a4nnern-des-jahres` — Slam, Aug 17 '17 at 03:45

score 7 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 28 '16 at 02:31

public static function slugify ($text) {

    $replace = [
        '&lt;' => '', '&gt;' => '', '&#039;' => '', '&amp;' => '',
        '&quot;' => '', 'À' => 'A', 'Á' => 'A', 'Â' => 'A', 'Ã' => 'A', 'Ä'=> 'Ae',
        '&Auml;' => 'A', 'Å' => 'A', 'Ā' => 'A', 'Ą' => 'A', 'Ă' => 'A', 'Æ' => 'Ae',
        'Ç' => 'C', 'Ć' => 'C', 'Č' => 'C', 'Ĉ' => 'C', 'Ċ' => 'C', 'Ď' => 'D', 'Đ' => 'D',
        'Ð' => 'D', 'È' => 'E', 'É' => 'E', 'Ê' => 'E', 'Ë' => 'E', 'Ē' => 'E',
        'Ę' => 'E', 'Ě' => 'E', 'Ĕ' => 'E', 'Ė' => 'E', 'Ĝ' => 'G', 'Ğ' => 'G',
        'Ġ' => 'G', 'Ģ' => 'G', 'Ĥ' => 'H', 'Ħ' => 'H', 'Ì' => 'I', 'Í' => 'I',
        'Î' => 'I', 'Ï' => 'I', 'Ī' => 'I', 'Ĩ' => 'I', 'Ĭ' => 'I', 'Į' => 'I',
        'İ' => 'I', 'Ĳ' => 'IJ', 'Ĵ' => 'J', 'Ķ' => 'K', 'Ł' => 'K', 'Ľ' => 'K',
        'Ĺ' => 'K', 'Ļ' => 'K', 'Ŀ' => 'K', 'Ñ' => 'N', 'Ń' => 'N', 'Ň' => 'N',
        'Ņ' => 'N', 'Ŋ' => 'N', 'Ò' => 'O', 'Ó' => 'O', 'Ô' => 'O', 'Õ' => 'O',
        'Ö' => 'Oe', '&Ouml;' => 'Oe', 'Ø' => 'O', 'Ō' => 'O', 'Ő' => 'O', 'Ŏ' => 'O',
        'Œ' => 'OE', 'Ŕ' => 'R', 'Ř' => 'R', 'Ŗ' => 'R', 'Ś' => 'S', 'Š' => 'S',
        'Ş' => 'S', 'Ŝ' => 'S', 'Ș' => 'S', 'Ť' => 'T', 'Ţ' => 'T', 'Ŧ' => 'T',
        'Ț' => 'T', 'Ù' => 'U', 'Ú' => 'U', 'Û' => 'U', 'Ü' => 'Ue', 'Ū' => 'U',
        '&Uuml;' => 'Ue', 'Ů' => 'U', 'Ű' => 'U', 'Ŭ' => 'U', 'Ũ' => 'U', 'Ų' => 'U',
        'Ŵ' => 'W', 'Ý' => 'Y', 'Ŷ' => 'Y', 'Ÿ' => 'Y', 'Ź' => 'Z', 'Ž' => 'Z',
        'Ż' => 'Z', 'Þ' => 'T', 'à' => 'a', 'á' => 'a', 'â' => 'a', 'ã' => 'a',
        'ä' => 'ae', '&auml;' => 'ae', 'å' => 'a', 'ā' => 'a', 'ą' => 'a', 'ă' => 'a',
        'æ' => 'ae', 'ç' => 'c', 'ć' => 'c', 'č' => 'c', 'ĉ' => 'c', 'ċ' => 'c',
        'ď' => 'd', 'đ' => 'd', 'ð' => 'd', 'è' => 'e', 'é' => 'e', 'ê' => 'e',
        'ë' => 'e', 'ē' => 'e', 'ę' => 'e', 'ě' => 'e', 'ĕ' => 'e', 'ė' => 'e',
        'ƒ' => 'f', 'ĝ' => 'g', 'ğ' => 'g', 'ġ' => 'g', 'ģ' => 'g', 'ĥ' => 'h',
        'ħ' => 'h', 'ì' => 'i', 'í' => 'i', 'î' => 'i', 'ï' => 'i', 'ī' => 'i',
        'ĩ' => 'i', 'ĭ' => 'i', 'į' => 'i', 'ı' => 'i', 'ĳ' => 'ij', 'ĵ' => 'j',
        'ķ' => 'k', 'ĸ' => 'k', 'ł' => 'l', 'ľ' => 'l', 'ĺ' => 'l', 'ļ' => 'l',
        'ŀ' => 'l', 'ñ' => 'n', 'ń' => 'n', 'ň' => 'n', 'ņ' => 'n', 'ŉ' => 'n',
        'ŋ' => 'n', 'ò' => 'o', 'ó' => 'o', 'ô' => 'o', 'õ' => 'o', 'ö' => 'oe',
        '&ouml;' => 'oe', 'ø' => 'o', 'ō' => 'o', 'ő' => 'o', 'ŏ' => 'o', 'œ' => 'oe',
        'ŕ' => 'r', 'ř' => 'r', 'ŗ' => 'r', 'š' => 's', 'ù' => 'u', 'ú' => 'u',
        'û' => 'u', 'ü' => 'ue', 'ū' => 'u', '&uuml;' => 'ue', 'ů' => 'u', 'ű' => 'u',
        'ŭ' => 'u', 'ũ' => 'u', 'ų' => 'u', 'ŵ' => 'w', 'ý' => 'y', 'ÿ' => 'y',
        'ŷ' => 'y', 'ž' => 'z', 'ż' => 'z', 'ź' => 'z', 'þ' => 't', 'ß' => 'ss',
        'ſ' => 'ss', 'ый' => 'iy', 'А' => 'A', 'Б' => 'B', 'В' => 'V', 'Г' => 'G',
        'Д' => 'D', 'Е' => 'E', 'Ё' => 'YO', 'Ж' => 'ZH', 'З' => 'Z', 'И' => 'I',
        'Й' => 'Y', 'К' => 'K', 'Л' => 'L', 'М' => 'M', 'Н' => 'N', 'О' => 'O',
        'П' => 'P', 'Р' => 'R', 'С' => 'S', 'Т' => 'T', 'У' => 'U', 'Ф' => 'F',
        'Х' => 'H', 'Ц' => 'C', 'Ч' => 'CH', 'Ш' => 'SH', 'Щ' => 'SCH', 'Ъ' => '',
        'Ы' => 'Y', 'Ь' => '', 'Э' => 'E', 'Ю' => 'YU', 'Я' => 'YA', 'а' => 'a',
        'б' => 'b', 'в' => 'v', 'г' => 'g', 'д' => 'd', 'е' => 'e', 'ё' => 'yo',
        'ж' => 'zh', 'з' => 'z', 'и' => 'i', 'й' => 'y', 'к' => 'k', 'л' => 'l',
        'м' => 'm', 'н' => 'n', 'о' => 'o', 'п' => 'p', 'р' => 'r', 'с' => 's',
        'т' => 't', 'у' => 'u', 'ф' => 'f', 'х' => 'h', 'ц' => 'c', 'ч' => 'ch',
        'ш' => 'sh', 'щ' => 'sch', 'ъ' => '', 'ы' => 'y', 'ь' => '', 'э' => 'e',
        'ю' => 'yu', 'я' => 'ya'
    ];

    // make a human readable string
    $text = strtr($text, $replace);

    // replace non letter or digits by -
    $text = preg_replace('~[^\\pL\d.]+~u', '-', $text);

    // trim
    $text = trim($text, '-');

    // remove unwanted characters
    $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w.]+~', '', $text);

    $text = strtolower($text);

    return $text;
}

Hi Nady, welcome to SO. Code-only answers are discouraged here as they don't teach others _how_ to code. Could you edit your post to explain what your code sample does and how it answers the question? Thanks. — Tim Malone, Jun 28 '16 at 02:52

score 5 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 02 '10 at 06:39

Don't use preg_replace for this. There's a php function built just for the task: strtr() http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtr.php

Taken from the comments in the above link (and I tested it myself; it works:

function normalize ($string) {
    $table = array(
        'Š'=>'S', 'š'=>'s', 'Đ'=>'Dj', 'đ'=>'dj', 'Ž'=>'Z', 'ž'=>'z', 'Č'=>'C', 'č'=>'c', 'Ć'=>'C', 'ć'=>'c',
        'À'=>'A', 'Á'=>'A', 'Â'=>'A', 'Ã'=>'A', 'Ä'=>'A', 'Å'=>'A', 'Æ'=>'A', 'Ç'=>'C', 'È'=>'E', 'É'=>'E',
        'Ê'=>'E', 'Ë'=>'E', 'Ì'=>'I', 'Í'=>'I', 'Î'=>'I', 'Ï'=>'I', 'Ñ'=>'N', 'Ò'=>'O', 'Ó'=>'O', 'Ô'=>'O',
        'Õ'=>'O', 'Ö'=>'O', 'Ø'=>'O', 'Ù'=>'U', 'Ú'=>'U', 'Û'=>'U', 'Ü'=>'U', 'Ý'=>'Y', 'Þ'=>'B', 'ß'=>'Ss',
        'à'=>'a', 'á'=>'a', 'â'=>'a', 'ã'=>'a', 'ä'=>'a', 'å'=>'a', 'æ'=>'a', 'ç'=>'c', 'è'=>'e', 'é'=>'e',
        'ê'=>'e', 'ë'=>'e', 'ì'=>'i', 'í'=>'i', 'î'=>'i', 'ï'=>'i', 'ð'=>'o', 'ñ'=>'n', 'ò'=>'o', 'ó'=>'o',
        'ô'=>'o', 'õ'=>'o', 'ö'=>'o', 'ø'=>'o', 'ù'=>'u', 'ú'=>'u', 'û'=>'u', 'ý'=>'y', 'ý'=>'y', 'þ'=>'b',
        'ÿ'=>'y', 'Ŕ'=>'R', 'ŕ'=>'r',
    );

    return strtr($string, $table);
}

the translation is ok, the problem is that im using the function through an ajax call, and it doesn't work in there =( — Andres SK, Jun 02 '10 at 15:38

score 5 · Answer 10 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

I didn't know which one to use so I made a quick bench on phptester.net

<?php

// First test
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/42740874/10232729
function slugify(STRING $string, STRING $separator = '-'){
    
    $accents_regex = '~&([a-z]{1,2})(?:acute|cedil|circ|grave|lig|orn|ring|slash|th|tilde|uml);~i';
    $special_cases = [ '&' => 'and', "'" => ''];
    $string = mb_strtolower( trim( $string ), 'UTF-8' );
    $string = str_replace( array_keys($special_cases), array_values( $special_cases), $string );
    $string = preg_replace( $accents_regex, '$1', htmlentities( $string, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8' ) );
    $string = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9]/u', $separator, $string);
    
    return preg_replace('/['.$separator.']+/u', $separator, $string);
}

// Second test
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/13331948/10232729
function slug(STRING $string, STRING $separator = '-'){
    
    $string = transliterator_transliterate('Any-Latin; NFD; [:Nonspacing Mark:] Remove; NFC; [:Punctuation:] Remove; Lower();', $string);
        
    return str_replace(' ', $separator, $string);;
}

// Third test - My choice
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/38066136/10232729
function slugbis($text){

    $replace = [
        '<' => '', '>' => '', '-' => ' ', '&' => '',
        '"' => '', 'À' => 'A', 'Á' => 'A', 'Â' => 'A', 'Ã' => 'A', 'Ä'=> 'Ae',
        'Ä' => 'A', 'Å' => 'A', 'Ā' => 'A', 'Ą' => 'A', 'Ă' => 'A', 'Æ' => 'Ae',
        'Ç' => 'C', 'Ć' => 'C', 'Č' => 'C', 'Ĉ' => 'C', 'Ċ' => 'C', 'Ď' => 'D', 'Đ' => 'D',
        'Ð' => 'D', 'È' => 'E', 'É' => 'E', 'Ê' => 'E', 'Ë' => 'E', 'Ē' => 'E',
        'Ę' => 'E', 'Ě' => 'E', 'Ĕ' => 'E', 'Ė' => 'E', 'Ĝ' => 'G', 'Ğ' => 'G',
        'Ġ' => 'G', 'Ģ' => 'G', 'Ĥ' => 'H', 'Ħ' => 'H', 'Ì' => 'I', 'Í' => 'I',
        'Î' => 'I', 'Ï' => 'I', 'Ī' => 'I', 'Ĩ' => 'I', 'Ĭ' => 'I', 'Į' => 'I',
        'İ' => 'I', 'Ĳ' => 'IJ', 'Ĵ' => 'J', 'Ķ' => 'K', 'Ł' => 'K', 'Ľ' => 'K',
        'Ĺ' => 'K', 'Ļ' => 'K', 'Ŀ' => 'K', 'Ñ' => 'N', 'Ń' => 'N', 'Ň' => 'N',
        'Ņ' => 'N', 'Ŋ' => 'N', 'Ò' => 'O', 'Ó' => 'O', 'Ô' => 'O', 'Õ' => 'O',
        'Ö' => 'Oe', 'Ö' => 'Oe', 'Ø' => 'O', 'Ō' => 'O', 'Ő' => 'O', 'Ŏ' => 'O',
        'Œ' => 'OE', 'Ŕ' => 'R', 'Ř' => 'R', 'Ŗ' => 'R', 'Ś' => 'S', 'Š' => 'S',
        'Ş' => 'S', 'Ŝ' => 'S', 'Ș' => 'S', 'Ť' => 'T', 'Ţ' => 'T', 'Ŧ' => 'T',
        'Ț' => 'T', 'Ù' => 'U', 'Ú' => 'U', 'Û' => 'U', 'Ü' => 'Ue', 'Ū' => 'U',
        'Ü' => 'Ue', 'Ů' => 'U', 'Ű' => 'U', 'Ŭ' => 'U', 'Ũ' => 'U', 'Ų' => 'U',
        'Ŵ' => 'W', 'Ý' => 'Y', 'Ŷ' => 'Y', 'Ÿ' => 'Y', 'Ź' => 'Z', 'Ž' => 'Z',
        'Ż' => 'Z', 'Þ' => 'T', 'à' => 'a', 'á' => 'a', 'â' => 'a', 'ã' => 'a',
        'ä' => 'ae', 'ä' => 'ae', 'å' => 'a', 'ā' => 'a', 'ą' => 'a', 'ă' => 'a',
        'æ' => 'ae', 'ç' => 'c', 'ć' => 'c', 'č' => 'c', 'ĉ' => 'c', 'ċ' => 'c',
        'ď' => 'd', 'đ' => 'd', 'ð' => 'd', 'è' => 'e', 'é' => 'e', 'ê' => 'e',
        'ë' => 'e', 'ē' => 'e', 'ę' => 'e', 'ě' => 'e', 'ĕ' => 'e', 'ė' => 'e',
        'ƒ' => 'f', 'ĝ' => 'g', 'ğ' => 'g', 'ġ' => 'g', 'ģ' => 'g', 'ĥ' => 'h',
        'ħ' => 'h', 'ì' => 'i', 'í' => 'i', 'î' => 'i', 'ï' => 'i', 'ī' => 'i',
        'ĩ' => 'i', 'ĭ' => 'i', 'į' => 'i', 'ı' => 'i', 'ĳ' => 'ij', 'ĵ' => 'j',
        'ķ' => 'k', 'ĸ' => 'k', 'ł' => 'l', 'ľ' => 'l', 'ĺ' => 'l', 'ļ' => 'l',
        'ŀ' => 'l', 'ñ' => 'n', 'ń' => 'n', 'ň' => 'n', 'ņ' => 'n', 'ŉ' => 'n',
        'ŋ' => 'n', 'ò' => 'o', 'ó' => 'o', 'ô' => 'o', 'õ' => 'o', 'ö' => 'oe',
        'ö' => 'oe', 'ø' => 'o', 'ō' => 'o', 'ő' => 'o', 'ŏ' => 'o', 'œ' => 'oe',
        'ŕ' => 'r', 'ř' => 'r', 'ŗ' => 'r', 'š' => 's', 'ù' => 'u', 'ú' => 'u',
        'û' => 'u', 'ü' => 'ue', 'ū' => 'u', 'ü' => 'ue', 'ů' => 'u', 'ű' => 'u',
        'ŭ' => 'u', 'ũ' => 'u', 'ų' => 'u', 'ŵ' => 'w', 'ý' => 'y', 'ÿ' => 'y',
        'ŷ' => 'y', 'ž' => 'z', 'ż' => 'z', 'ź' => 'z', 'þ' => 't', 'ß' => 'ss',
        'ſ' => 'ss', 'ый' => 'iy', 'А' => 'A', 'Б' => 'B', 'В' => 'V', 'Г' => 'G',
        'Д' => 'D', 'Е' => 'E', 'Ё' => 'YO', 'Ж' => 'ZH', 'З' => 'Z', 'И' => 'I',
        'Й' => 'Y', 'К' => 'K', 'Л' => 'L', 'М' => 'M', 'Н' => 'N', 'О' => 'O',
        'П' => 'P', 'Р' => 'R', 'С' => 'S', 'Т' => 'T', 'У' => 'U', 'Ф' => 'F',
        'Х' => 'H', 'Ц' => 'C', 'Ч' => 'CH', 'Ш' => 'SH', 'Щ' => 'SCH', 'Ъ' => '',
        'Ы' => 'Y', 'Ь' => '', 'Э' => 'E', 'Ю' => 'YU', 'Я' => 'YA', 'а' => 'a',
        'б' => 'b', 'в' => 'v', 'г' => 'g', 'д' => 'd', 'е' => 'e', 'ё' => 'yo',
        'ж' => 'zh', 'з' => 'z', 'и' => 'i', 'й' => 'y', 'к' => 'k', 'л' => 'l',
        'м' => 'm', 'н' => 'n', 'о' => 'o', 'п' => 'p', 'р' => 'r', 'с' => 's',
        'т' => 't', 'у' => 'u', 'ф' => 'f', 'х' => 'h', 'ц' => 'c', 'ч' => 'ch',
        'ш' => 'sh', 'щ' => 'sch', 'ъ' => '', 'ы' => 'y', 'ь' => '', 'э' => 'e',
        'ю' => 'yu', 'я' => 'ya'
    ];

    // make a human readable string
    $text = strtr($text, $replace);

    // replace non letter or digits by -
    $text = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d.]+~u', '-', $text);

    // trim
    $text = trim($text, '-');

    // remove unwanted characters
    $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w.]+~', '', $text);

    return strtolower($text);
}

// Fourth test
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/2955521/10232729
function slugagain($string){
    
    $table = [
        'Š'=>'S', 'š'=>'s', 'Đ'=>'Dj', 'đ'=>'dj', 'Ž'=>'Z', 'ž'=>'z', 'Č'=>'C', 'č'=>'c', 'Ć'=>'C', 'ć'=>'c',
        'À'=>'A', 'Á'=>'A', 'Â'=>'A', 'Ã'=>'A', 'Ä'=>'A', 'Å'=>'A', 'Æ'=>'A', 'Ç'=>'C', 'È'=>'E', 'É'=>'E',
        'Ê'=>'E', 'Ë'=>'E', 'Ì'=>'I', 'Í'=>'I', 'Î'=>'I', 'Ï'=>'I', 'Ñ'=>'N', 'Ò'=>'O', 'Ó'=>'O', 'Ô'=>'O',
        'Õ'=>'O', 'Ö'=>'O', 'Ø'=>'O', 'Ù'=>'U', 'Ú'=>'U', 'Û'=>'U', 'Ü'=>'U', 'Ý'=>'Y', 'Þ'=>'B', 'ß'=>'Ss',
        'à'=>'a', 'á'=>'a', 'â'=>'a', 'ã'=>'a', 'ä'=>'a', 'å'=>'a', 'æ'=>'a', 'ç'=>'c', 'è'=>'e', 'é'=>'e',
        'ê'=>'e', 'ë'=>'e', 'ì'=>'i', 'í'=>'i', 'î'=>'i', 'ï'=>'i', 'ð'=>'o', 'ñ'=>'n', 'ò'=>'o', 'ó'=>'o',
        'ô'=>'o', 'õ'=>'o', 'ö'=>'o', 'ø'=>'o', 'ù'=>'u', 'ú'=>'u', 'û'=>'u', 'ý'=>'y', 'ý'=>'y', 'þ'=>'b',
        'ÿ'=>'y', 'Ŕ'=>'R', 'ŕ'=>'r', ' '=>'-'
    ];

    return strtr($string, $table);
}

// Fifth test
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/27396804/10232729
function slugifybis($url){
    $url = trim($url);

    $url = str_replace(' ', '-', $url);
    $url = str_replace('/', '-slash-', $url);
    
    return rawurlencode($url);
}

// Sixth and last test
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/39442034/10232729
setlocale( LC_ALL, "en_US.UTF8" );  
function slugifyagain($string){
    
    $string = iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//translit//ignore', $string); // transliterate
    $string = str_replace("'", '', $string);
    $string = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d]+~u', '-', $string); // replace non letter or non digits by "-"
    $string = preg_replace('~[^-\w]+~', '', $string); // remove unwanted characters
    $string = preg_replace('~-+~', '-', $string); // remove duplicate "-"
    $string = trim($string, '-'); // trim "-"
    $string = trim($string); // trim
    $string = mb_strtolower($string, 'utf-8'); // lowercase
    
    return urlencode($string); // safe;
};

$string = $newString = "¿ Àñdréß l'affreux ğarçon & nøël en forêt !";

$max = 10000;

echo '<pre>';
echo 'Beginning :';
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';    
echo '> Slugging '.$max.' iterations of following :';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> ' . $string;
echo '<br />';  
echo '<br />';
echo 'Output results :';
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';  

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slugify($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> First test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';  
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slug($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> Second test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slugbis($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> Third test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slugagain($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> Fourth test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slugifybis($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> Fifth test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '<br />';
echo '<br />';

$start = microtime(true);

for($i = 0 ; $i < $max ; $i++){
    
    $newString = slugifyagain($string);
}

$time = (microtime(true) - $start) * 1000;

echo '> Sixth test passed in **' . round($time, 2) . 'ms**';
echo '<br />';
echo '>> Result : ' . $newString;
echo '</pre>';

Beginning :

Slugging 10000 iterations of following :

¿ Àñdréß l'affreux ğarçon & nøël en forêt !

Output results :

First test passed in 120.78ms

Result : -iquest-andresz-laffreux-arcon-and-noel-en-foret-

Second test passed in 3883.82ms

Result : -andreß-laffreux-garcon--nøel-en-foret-

Third test passed in 56.83ms

Result : andress-l-affreux-garcon-noel-en-foret

Fourth test passed in 18.93ms

Result : ¿-AndreSs-l'affreux-ğarcon-&-noel-en-foret-!

Fifth test passed in 6.45ms

Result : %C2%BF-%C3%80%C3%B1dr%C3%A9%C3%9F-l%27affreux-%C4%9Far%C3%A7on-%26-n%C3%B8%C3%ABl-en-for%C3%AAt-%21

Sixth test passed in 112.42ms

Result : andress-laffreux-garcon-n-el-en-foret

Further tests needed.

Edit : less iterations test

Beginning :

Slugging 100 iterations of following :

¿ Àñdréß l'affreux ğarçon & nøël en forêt !

Output results :

First test passed in 1.72ms

Result : -iquest-andresz-laffreux-arcon-and-noel-en-foret-

Second test passed in 48.59ms

Result : -andreß-laffreux-garcon--nøel-en-foret-

Third test passed in 0.91ms

Result : andress-l-affreux-garcon-noel-en-foret

Fourth test passed in 0.3ms

Result : ¿-AndreSs-l'affreux-ğarcon-&-noel-en-foret-!

Fifth test passed in 0.14ms

Result : %C2%BF-%C3%80%C3%B1dr%C3%A9%C3%9F-l%27affreux-%C4%9Far%C3%A7on-%26-n%C3%B8%C3%ABl-en-for%C3%AAt-%21

Sixth test passed in 1.4ms

Result : andress-laffreux-garcon-n-el-en-foret

score 4 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 13 '15 at 15:07

4

I am using:

function slugify($text)
{ 
    $text = iconv('utf-8', 'us-ascii//TRANSLIT', $text);
    return strtolower(preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9-]+/', '-', $text));
}

Only fallback is that Cyrillic characters will not be converted, and I am searching now for solution that is not long str_replace for every single Cyrillic character.

answered Jan 13 '15 at 15:07

Mladen Janjetovic

11,254
8
64
74

iconv is not installed on many servers. solution to convert any characters is to use `set_locale('cyrillic.UTF-8')` first. Exact value depends on your installed locales. – Daniel W. May 21 '15 at 10:28

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 02 '10 at 12:46

2

You could have a look at Normalizer::normalize(), see here. It just needs to load the intl module for PHP

answered Jun 02 '10 at 12:46

Serty Oan

1,727
12
18

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Jun 25 '15 at 14:30

2

What about using something that is already implemented in Core?

//Clean non UTF-8 characters    
Mage::getHelper('core/string')->cleanString($str)

Or one of the core url/ url rewrite methods..

answered Jun 25 '15 at 14:30

Bery

1,034
1
9
22

score 2 · Answer 14 · answered Oct 07 '15 at 19:49

I wrote this based on Maerlyn's response. This function will work regardless of the character encoding on the page. It also won't turn single quotes in to dashes :)

function slugify ($string) {
    $string = utf8_encode($string);
    $string = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $string);   
    $string = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9- ]/i', '', $string);
    $string = str_replace(' ', '-', $string);
    $string = trim($string, '-');
    $string = strtolower($string);

    if (empty($string)) {
        return 'n-a';
    }

    return $string;
}

Yay this one actually works, that was really bugging me turning apostrophes/single quotes into hyphens. Thank you. — GibsonFX, Jun 18 '17 at 04:48

score 2 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 16 '19 at 22:59

This may be a way to do it too. Inspired from these links Experts-exchange and alinalexander

function slugifier($txt){

   /* Get rid of accented characters */
   $search = explode(",","ç,æ,œ,á,é,í,ó,ú,à,è,ì,ò,ù,ä,ë,ï,ö,ü,ÿ,â,ê,î,ô,û,å,e,i,ø,u");
   $replace = explode(",","c,ae,oe,a,e,i,o,u,a,e,i,o,u,a,e,i,o,u,y,a,e,i,o,u,a,e,i,o,u");
   $txt = str_replace($search, $replace, $txt);

   /* Lowercase all the characters */
   $txt = strtolower($txt);

   /* Avoid whitespace at the beginning and the ending */
   $txt = trim($txt);

   /* Replace all the characters that are not in a-z or 0-9 by a hyphen */
   $txt = preg_replace("/[^a-z0-9]/", "-", $txt);
   /* Remove hyphen anywhere it's more than one */
   $txt = preg_replace("/[\-]+/", '-', $txt);
   return $txt;   
}

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 10 '14 at 08:57

Since gTLDs and IDNs are becoming more and more used I cannot see why URL shouldn't contain Andrés.

Just rawurlencode $URL you want instead. Most browsers show UTF-8 characters in URLs (not some ancient IE6 maybe) and bit.ly / goo.gl can be used to make it short in cases like Russian and Arabic if need may be for ad purposes or just write them in ads like user would write them on browser URL.

Only difference is spaces " " it might be good idea to replace them with "-" and "/" if you don't want to allow those.

<?php
function slugify($url)
{
    $url = trim($url);

    $url = str_replace(" ","-",$url);
    $url = str_replace("/","-slash-",$url);
    $url = rawurlencode($url);
}
?>

Url as encoded http://www.hurtta.com/RU/%D0%9F%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%8B/

Url as written http://www.hurtta.com/RU/Продукты/

Starboy · Answer 17 · 2020-10-31T20:43:13.137

On my localhost everything was ok, but on server it helped me “set_locale” and “utf-8” at “mb_strtolower”.

<?
setlocale( LC_ALL, "en_US.UTF8" );
function slug( $str, $char = "-", $tf = "lowercase" )
{
    $str = iconv( "utf-8", "us-ascii//translit//ignore", $str ); // transliterate
    $str = str_replace( "'", "", $str ); // remove “'” generated by iconv
    $str = preg_replace( "~[^a-z0-9]+~ui", $char, $str ); // replace unwanted by single “-”
    $str = trim( $str, $char ); // trim “-”
    if( $tf == "lowercase" ) $str = mb_strtolower( $str, "utf-8" ); // lowercase
    elseif( $tf == "uppercase" ) $str = mb_strtoupper( $str, "utf-8" );
    return $str;
}
?>

Test

$string = "--+ěščřžýá091354--––—_-6íé↨☻☻ßẞąć …   ęłńśźżĄĆ  ĘŁŃŚ   Ź///+++||||..Ż";
echo slug( $string );
echo slug( $string, "☻", "uppercase" );

// → escrzya091354-6iessac-elnszzac-elns-z-z
// → ESCRZYA091354☻6IESSAC☻ELNSZZAC☻ELNS☻Z☻Z

its for latin extended ěščřžýáíéúůó – Starboy Sep 12 '16 at 00:51 — Starboy, Sep 12 '16 at 00:51

Paulo Victor · Answer 18 · 2016-12-14T16:57:58.057

The most elegant way I think is using a Behat\Transliterator\Transliterator.

I need to extends this class by your class because it is an Abstract, some like this:

<?php
use Behat\Transliterator\Transliterator;

class Urlizer extends Transliterator
{
}

And then, just use it:

$text = "Master Ápiu";
$urlizer = new Urlizer();
$slug = $urlizer->transliterate($slug, "-");
echo $slug; // master-apiu

Of course you should put this things in your composer as well.

composer require behat/transliterator

More info here https://github.com/Behat/Transliterator

Lucas Bustamante · Answer 19 · 2018-08-17T14:26:48.520

There's a good solution here that deals with special characters as well.

Texto Fantástico => texto-fantastico

function slugify( $string, $separator = '-' ) {
    $accents_regex = '~&([a-z]{1,2})(?:acute|cedil|circ|grave|lig|orn|ring|slash|th|tilde|uml);~i';
    $special_cases = array( '&' => 'and', "'" => '');
    $string = mb_strtolower( trim( $string ), 'UTF-8' );
    $string = str_replace( array_keys($special_cases), array_values( $special_cases), $string );
    $string = preg_replace( $accents_regex, '$1', htmlentities( $string, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8' ) );
    $string = preg_replace("/[^a-z0-9]/u", "$separator", $string);
    $string = preg_replace("/[$separator]+/u", "$separator", $string);
    return $string;
}

Author: Natxet

score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Jul 04 '19 at 08:06

1

Since I've Seen a lot of methods here but I've found a simplest method for myself.Maybe it will help someone.

$slug = strtolower(preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-]/', '',preg_replace('/\s+/', '-', $string) ));

answered Jul 04 '19 at 08:06

Muhammad Bilal

385
3
12

score 0 · Answer 21 · edited Jul 10 '20 at 17:12

0

For me this variant is perfect, also it change & to and. Here is code:

function dSlug($string) {
    return strtolower(trim(preg_replace('~[^0-9a-z]+~i', '-', html_entity_decode(preg_replace('~&([a-z]{1,2})(?:acute|cedil|circ|grave|lig|orn|ring|slash|th|tilde|uml);~i', '$1',htmlentities(preg_replace('/[&]/', ' and ', $title), ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8')), ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8')), '-'));
}`

edited Jul 10 '20 at 17:12

SomoKRoceS

2,449
2
14
22

answered Jul 10 '20 at 15:21

Артем Рудницкий

1
1

score 0 · Answer 22 · answered Feb 19 '21 at 15:16

0

if your slug contain only A-Za-z0-9- then it is ok for you

function sanitize_slug($text)
{
    $text = preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9-]+/', '-', $text);
    $text = trim($text, '-');
    $text = preg_replace('~-+~', '-', $text);
    return $text;
}

answered Feb 19 '21 at 15:16

Raghavendra K J

1
3

score 0 · Answer 23 · answered Mar 06 '21 at 13:50

Vous pouvez cette function pour transformer ton title en url
function slug($string, $delimiter = '-') {
    $oldLocale = setlocale(LC_ALL, '0');
    setlocale(LC_ALL, 'en_US.UTF-8');
    $clean = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $string);
    $clean = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\/_|+ -]/", '', $clean);
    $clean = strtolower($clean);
    $clean = preg_replace("/[\/_|+ -]+/", $delimiter, $clean);
    $clean = trim($clean, $delimiter);
    setlocale(LC_ALL, $oldLocale);
    return $clean;
}

please add some explanation to your answer – Pejman Kheyri Mar 06 '21 at 15:58 — Pejman Kheyri, Mar 06 '21 at 15:58

score 0 · Answer 24 · edited Apr 17 '21 at 10:42

There are already many answers here, so I almost don't want to add another one, but none of the function did everything I needed.

The best basis for me was function number 3 where their speed was compared. I added/fixed some replacements so

' is just deleted,
. is replaced by -,
α is replaced by a,
ẞ is replaced by b,
Ł (and similar) is replaced by L instead of K, and
€ and $ signs are replaced with eur and usd respectively (add more on necessity).

Optionally you can add '&' => '-and-', but SEO advises against usage of conjunctions (#8), so I left it out for my use-case. (this function doesn't strip existing ands and ors from the string though)

I also added a line of code to fix double dash in this weird string I came up with, as well as an optional parameter to limit slug's length.

Code

<?php
function slugify($text, $length = null)
{
    $replacements = [
        '<' => '', '>' => '', '-' => ' ', '&' => '', '"' => '', 'À' => 'A', 'Á' => 'A', 'Â' => 'A', 'Ã' => 'A', 'Ä' => 'Ae', 'Ä' => 'A', 'Å' => 'A', 'Ā' => 'A', 'Ą' => 'A', 'Ă' => 'A', 'Æ' => 'Ae', 'Ç' => 'C', "'" => '', 'Ć' => 'C', 'Č' => 'C', 'Ĉ' => 'C', 'Ċ' => 'C', 'Ď' => 'D', 'Đ' => 'D', 'Ð' => 'D', 'È' => 'E', 'É' => 'E', 'Ê' => 'E', 'Ë' => 'E', 'Ē' => 'E', 'Ę' => 'E', 'Ě' => 'E', 'Ĕ' => 'E', 'Ė' => 'E', 'Ĝ' => 'G', 'Ğ' => 'G', 'Ġ' => 'G', 'Ģ' => 'G', 'Ĥ' => 'H', 'Ħ' => 'H', 'Ì' => 'I', 'Í' => 'I', 'Î' => 'I', 'Ï' => 'I', 'Ī' => 'I', 'Ĩ' => 'I', 'Ĭ' => 'I', 'Į' => 'I', 'İ' => 'I', 'Ĳ' => 'IJ', 'Ĵ' => 'J', 'Ķ' => 'K', 'Ł' => 'L', 'Ľ' => 'L', 'Ĺ' => 'L', 'Ļ' => 'L', 'Ŀ' => 'L', 'Ñ' => 'N', 'Ń' => 'N', 'Ň' => 'N', 'Ņ' => 'N', 'Ŋ' => 'N', 'Ò' => 'O', 'Ó' => 'O', 'Ô' => 'O', 'Õ' => 'O', 'Ö' => 'Oe', 'Ö' => 'Oe', 'Ø' => 'O', 'Ō' => 'O', 'Ő' => 'O', 'Ŏ' => 'O', 'Œ' => 'OE', 'Ŕ' => 'R', 'Ř' => 'R', 'Ŗ' => 'R', 'Ś' => 'S', 'Š' => 'S', 'Ş' => 'S', 'Ŝ' => 'S', 'Ș' => 'S', 'Ť' => 'T', 'Ţ' => 'T', 'Ŧ' => 'T', 'Ț' => 'T', 'Ù' => 'U', 'Ú' => 'U', 'Û' => 'U', 'Ü' => 'Ue', 'Ū' => 'U', 'Ü' => 'Ue', 'Ů' => 'U', 'Ű' => 'U', 'Ŭ' => 'U', 'Ũ' => 'U', 'Ų' => 'U', 'Ŵ' => 'W', 'Ý' => 'Y', 'Ŷ' => 'Y', 'Ÿ' => 'Y', 'Ź' => 'Z', 'Ž' => 'Z', 'Ż' => 'Z', 'Þ' => 'T', 'à' => 'a', 'á' => 'a', 'â' => 'a', 'ã' => 'a', 'ä' => 'ae', 'ä' => 'ae', 'å' => 'a', 'ā' => 'a', 'ą' => 'a', 'ă' => 'a', 'æ' => 'ae', 'ç' => 'c', 'ć' => 'c', 'č' => 'c', 'ĉ' => 'c', 'ċ' => 'c', 'ď' => 'd', 'đ' => 'd', 'ð' => 'd', 'è' => 'e', 'é' => 'e', 'ê' => 'e', 'ë' => 'e', 'ē' => 'e', 'ę' => 'e', 'ě' => 'e', 'ĕ' => 'e', 'ė' => 'e', 'ƒ' => 'f', 'ĝ' => 'g', 'ğ' => 'g', 'ġ' => 'g', 'ģ' => 'g', 'ĥ' => 'h', 'ħ' => 'h', 'ì' => 'i', 'í' => 'i', 'î' => 'i', 'ï' => 'i', 'ī' => 'i', 'ĩ' => 'i', 'ĭ' => 'i', 'į' => 'i', 'ı' => 'i', 'ĳ' => 'ij', 'ĵ' => 'j', 'ķ' => 'k', 'ĸ' => 'k', 'ł' => 'l', 'ľ' => 'l', 'ĺ' => 'l', 'ļ' => 'l', 'ŀ' => 'l', 'ñ' => 'n', 'ń' => 'n', 'ň' => 'n', 'ņ' => 'n', 'ŉ' => 'n', 'ŋ' => 'n', 'ò' => 'o', 'ó' => 'o', 'ô' => 'o', 'õ' => 'o', 'ö' => 'oe', 'ö' => 'oe', 'ø' => 'o', 'ō' => 'o', 'ő' => 'o', 'ŏ' => 'o', 'œ' => 'oe', 'ŕ' => 'r', 'ř' => 'r', 'ŗ' => 'r', 'š' => 's', 'ś' => 's', 'ù' => 'u', 'ú' => 'u', 'û' => 'u', 'ü' => 'ue', 'ū' => 'u', 'ü' => 'ue', 'ů' => 'u', 'ű' => 'u', 'ŭ' => 'u', 'ũ' => 'u', 'ų' => 'u', 'ŵ' => 'w', 'ý' => 'y', 'ÿ' => 'y', 'ŷ' => 'y', 'ž' => 'z', 'ż' => 'z', 'ź' => 'z', 'þ' => 't', 'α' => 'a', 'ß' => 'ss', 'ẞ' => 'b', 'ſ' => 'ss', 'ый' => 'iy', 'А' => 'A', 'Б' => 'B', 'В' => 'V', 'Г' => 'G', 'Д' => 'D', 'Е' => 'E', 'Ё' => 'YO', 'Ж' => 'ZH', 'З' => 'Z', 'И' => 'I', 'Й' => 'Y', 'К' => 'K', 'Л' => 'L', 'М' => 'M', 'Н' => 'N', 'О' => 'O', 'П' => 'P', 'Р' => 'R', 'С' => 'S', 'Т' => 'T', 'У' => 'U', 'Ф' => 'F', 'Х' => 'H', 'Ц' => 'C', 'Ч' => 'CH', 'Ш' => 'SH', 'Щ' => 'SCH', 'Ъ' => '', 'Ы' => 'Y', 'Ь' => '', 'Э' => 'E', 'Ю' => 'YU', 'Я' => 'YA', 'а' => 'a', 'б' => 'b', 'в' => 'v', 'г' => 'g', 'д' => 'd', 'е' => 'e', 'ё' => 'yo', 'ж' => 'zh', 'з' => 'z', 'и' => 'i', 'й' => 'y', 'к' => 'k', 'л' => 'l', 'м' => 'm', 'н' => 'n', 'о' => 'o', 'п' => 'p', 'р' => 'r', 'с' => 's', 'т' => 't', 'у' => 'u', 'ф' => 'f', 'х' => 'h', 'ц' => 'c', 'ч' => 'ch', 'ш' => 'sh', 'щ' => 'sch', 'ъ' => '', 'ы' => 'y', 'ь' => '', 'э' => 'e', 'ю' => 'yu', 'я' => 'ya', '.' => '-', '€' => '-eur-', '$' => '-usd-'
    ];
    // Replace non-ascii characters
    $text = strtr($text, $replacements);
    // Replace non letter or digits with "-"
    $text = preg_replace('~[^\pL\d.]+~u', '-', $text);
    // Replace unwanted characters with "-"
    $text = preg_replace('~[^-\w.]+~', '-', $text);
    // Trim "-"
    $text = trim($text, '-');
    // Remove duplicate "-"
    $text = preg_replace('~-+~', '-', $text);
    // Convert to lowercase
    $text = strtolower($text);
    // Limit length
    if (isset($length) && $length < strlen($text))
        $text = rtrim(substr($text, 0, $length), '-');

    return $text;
}
$text = "--- You can't misuse me! Or can-ya? ČĆŽŠĐ÷×ß¤_.,:;-!\"#$%&/()=?*~ˇ^˘°˛`˙´˝¨¸¸¨Łł€\|@{}[] ¿ Àñdréß l'affreux ğarçon & nøël en forêt ! Andrés Cortez EFI收购Cretaprint Étienne";
echo "text\n$text\n\nslug\n".slugify($text);

Output

text
--- You can't misuse me! Or can-ya? ČĆŽŠĐ÷×ß¤_.,:;-!"#$%&/()=?*~ˇ^˘°˛`˙´˝¨¸¸¨Łł€\|@{}[] ¿ Àñdréß l'affreux ğarçon & nøël en forêt ! Andrés Cortez EFI收购Cretaprint Étienne

slug
you-cant-misuse-me-or-can-ya-cczsd-ss-usd-ll-eur-andress-laffreux-garcon-noel-en-foret-andres-cortez-efi-cretaprint-etienne

Note

It also works for OP's case for converting 'Andrés Cortez' to 'andres-cortez' and all other examples I have found in this thread, except this character which is beyond me: .

I'll be thrilled to know about bugs you found (hopefully accompanied with suggestions).

PHP function to make slug (URL string)

24 Answers24

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