PHP function to make slug (URL string)

Solution:1

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.

Solution:2

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
?>