Replace foreign characters

Question

I need to be able to replace some common foreign characters with English equivalents before I store values into my db.

For example: æ replace with <

Answer 1

For single character of accents

$str = strtr($str, 
  "ÀÁÂÃÄÅÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÑÒÓÔÕÖØÝßàáâãäåçèéêëìíîïñòóôõöøùúûüýÿ",
  "AAAAAACEEEEIIIINOOOOOOYSaaaaaaceeeeiiiinoooooouuuuyy"); 

For double character of accents (such as Æ, æ)

$match   = array('æ', 'Æ');
$replace = array('ae', 'AE');
$str = str_replace($replace, $replace, $str);