Question

What is the best way to convert a Delphi XE AnsiString containing escaped combining diacritical marks like “Fu\u0308rst” into a frienly WideString “Fürst”?

I am aware of the fact that this is not always possible for all combinations, but the common Latin blocks should be supported without building silly conversion tables on my own. I guess the solution can be found somewhere in the new Characters unit, but I don’t get it.

Answer 1

I think you need to perform Unicode Normalization. on your string.

I don’t know if there’s a specific call in Delphi XE RTL to do this, but the WinAPI call NormalizeString should help you here, with mode NormalizationKC:

NormalizationKC

Unicode normalization form KC, compatibility composition. Transforms
each base plus combining characters to
the canonical precomposed equivalent
and all compatibility characters to
their equivalents. For example, the ligature fi becomes f + i; similarly, A + ¨ + fi + n becomes Ä + f + i + n.