How do I remove accents from characters in a PHP string?

Using iconv with the glibc implementation can cause unexpected character substitutions like question marks when attempting to remove accents from characters in a PHP string.

The problem stems from an incompatibility between iconv and the glibc implementation, which is not as reliable as the preferred libiconv implementation. To resolve the issue, ensure that PHP is compiled with the correct libiconv implementation.

Alternatively, if re-compiling PHP is not an option, you can use a different approach, such as the WordPress function below, to remove accents:

function remove_accents($string) {
    if ( !preg_match('/[\x80-\xff]/', $string) )
        return $string;

    $chars = array(
    // Decompositions for Latin-1 Supplement
    chr(195).chr(128) => 'A', chr(195).chr(129) => 'A',
    chr(195).chr(130) => 'A', chr(195).chr(131) => 'A',
    chr(195).chr(132) => 'A', chr(195).chr(133) => 'A',
    chr(195).chr(135) => 'C', chr(195).chr(136) => 'E',
    chr(195).chr(137) => 'E', chr(195).chr(138) => 'E',
    chr(195).chr(139) => 'E', chr(195).chr(140) => 'I',
    chr(195).chr(141) => 'I', chr(195).chr(142) => 'I',
    chr(195).chr(143) => 'I', chr(195).chr(145) => 'N',
    chr(195).chr(146) => 'O', chr(195).chr(147) => 'O',
    chr(195).chr(148) => 'O', chr(195).chr(149) => 'O',
    chr(195).chr(150) => 'O', chr(195).chr(153) => 'U',
    chr(195).chr(154) => 'U', chr(195).chr(155) => 'U',
    chr(195).chr(156) => 'U', chr(195).chr(157) => 'Y',
    chr(195).chr(159) => 's', chr(195).chr(160) => 'a',
    chr(195).chr(161) => 'a', chr(195).chr(162) => 'a',
    chr(195).chr(163) => 'a', chr(195).chr(164) => 'a',
    chr(195).chr(165) => 'a', chr(195).chr(167) => 'c',
    chr(195).chr(168) => 'e', chr(195).chr(169) => 'e',
    chr(195).chr(170) => 'e', chr(195).chr(171) => 'e',
    chr(195).chr(172) => 'i', chr(195).chr(173) => 'i',
    chr(195).chr(174) => 'i', chr(195).chr(175) => 'i',
    chr(195).chr(177) => 'n', chr(195).chr(178) => 'o',
    chr(195).chr(179) => 'o', chr(195).chr(180) => 'o',
    chr(195).chr(181) => 'o', chr(195).chr(182) => 'o',
    chr(195).chr(182) => 'o', chr(195).chr(185) => 'u',
    chr(195).chr(186) => 'u', chr(195).chr(187) => 'u',
    chr(195).chr(188) => 'u', chr(195).chr(189) => 'y',
    chr(195).chr(191) => 'y',
    // Decompositions for Latin Extended-A
    chr(196).chr(128) => 'A', chr(196).chr(129) => 'a',
    chr(196).chr(130) => 'A', chr(196).chr(131) => 'a',
    chr(196).chr(132) => 'A', chr(196).chr(133) => 'a',
    chr(196).chr(134) => 'C', chr(196).chr(135) => 'c',
    chr(196).chr(136) => 'C', chr(196).chr(137) => 'c',
    chr(196).chr(138) => 'C', chr(196).chr(139) => 'c',
    chr(196).chr(140) => 'C', chr(196).chr(141) => 'c',
    chr(196).chr(142) => 'D', chr(196).chr(143) => 'd',
    chr(196).chr(144) => 'D', chr(196).chr(145) => 'd',
    chr(196).chr(146) => 'E', chr(196).chr(147) => 'e',
    chr(196).chr(148) => 'E', chr(196).chr(149) => 'e',
    chr(196).chr(150) => 'E', chr(196).chr(151) => 'e',
    chr(196).chr(152) => 'E', chr(196).chr(153) => 'e',
    chr(196).chr(154) => 'E', chr(196).chr(155) => 'e',
    chr(196).chr(156) => 'G', chr(196).chr(157) => 'g',
    chr(196).chr(158) => 'G', chr(196).chr(159) => 'g',
    chr(196).chr(160) => 'G', chr(196).chr(161) => 'g',
    chr(196).chr(162) => 'G', chr(196).chr(163) => 'g',
    chr(196).chr(164) => 'H', chr(196).chr(165) => 'h',
    chr(196).chr(166) => 'H', chr(196).chr(167) => 'h',
    chr(196).chr(168) => 'I', chr(196).chr(169) => 'i',