Question

I need to replace all the specials characters in a string with javascript or jQuery.
I am sure there is a better way to do this.
But I currently have no clue.
Anyone got an idea?

function Unaccent(str) {
    var norm = new Array('À','Á','Â','Ã','Ä','Å','Æ','Ç','È','É','Ê','Ë','Ì','Í','Î','Ï', 'Ð','Ñ','Ò','Ó','Ô','Õ','Ö','Ø','Ù','Ú','Û','Ü','Ý','Þ','ß', 'à','á','â','ã','ä','å','æ','ç','è','é','ê','ë','ì','í','î','ï','ð','ñ', 'ò','ó','ô','õ','ö','ø','ù','ú','û','ü','ý','ý','þ','ÿ');
    var spec = new Array('A','A','A','A','A','A','A','C','E','E','E','E','I','I','I','I', 'D','N','O','O','O','0','O','O','U','U','U','U','Y','b','s', 'a','a','a','a','a','a','a','c','e','e','e','e','i','i','i','i','d','n', 'o','o','o','o','o','o','u','u','u','u','y','y','b','y');
    for (var i = 0; i < spec.length; i++) {
        str = replaceAll(str, norm[i], spec[i]);
    }
    return str;
}

function replaceAll(str, search, repl) {
    while (str.indexOf(search) != -1) {
        str = str.replace(search, repl);
    }
    return str;
}

Answer 1

Using an object as a map is a good idea, but given the number of characters you’re replacing, it’s probably a good idea to pre-initialize the object so that it doesn’t have to be re-initialized each time the function gets run (assuming you’re running the function more than once):

var Unaccent = (function () {
    var charMap = {'À':'A','Á':'A','Â':'A','Ã':'A','Ä':'A' /** etc. **/};
    return function (str) {
        var i, modified = "", cur;
        for(i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
            cur = str.charAt(i);
            modified += (charMap[cur] || cur);
        }
        return modified;
    };
}());

This will front-load the heavy lifting of the function to page load time (you can do some modifications to delay it until the first call to the function if you like). But it will take some of the processing time out of the actual function call.

It’s possible some browsers will actually optimize this part anyway, so you might not see a benefit. But on older browsers (where performance is of greater concern), you’ll probably see some benefit to pre-processing your character map.