How to get rid of accents but keep the letters from a string

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Samuel_PP

I'm looking for a universal way to replace any known latin accented letters with their not accented counterparts.

For example the string 'èéêë' would become 'eeee'

Is there any way to do this?

Categories:

Building flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (8)

Answers (2)

Verified answer

Caspar_Rubin 831 on at

Like (1)

Report

Hey,

not sure if there is a "universal" way and maybe there is a easier way than this but it looks like you'll have to use the replace() function multiple times...

For example:

replace(replace(YOURSTRING,'è','e'),'é','e')

PS: There is a very well written guide on the replace() function by Bhawana Rathore here: Power Automate Replace + 21 Examples - EnjoySharePoint

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Samuel_PP 72 on at

Like (2)

Report

What I ended up doing is a Compose with an array of objects, each containing an accent and its base letter with data I found online like this:
[
{
"accent":"è",
"replacement":"e"
},...
]

Then I created a variable "text" containing my string and a "dummy" variable containing an empty string because self reference while updating a variable is not allowed.

Then I did an Apply each where I used Set variable to update my dummy variable with the formula replace(variable("text"),item["accent"], item["replacement"]) and within the same Apply each I used Set variable to set the value of "text" to be the value of "dummy"

With its 192 elements it is very slow but it works.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Caspar_Rubin 831 on at

Like (1)

Report

hey, sounds actually very clever. This way it's possible to add additional characters very easily without having to always go into the expressions editor...

thanks for letting us know.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Samuel_PP 72 on at

Like (8)

Report

I was curious wether your solution, putting all the replace in a single action, would help with the delay and boy does it make a difference, from over 2 minutes to 0 seconds. So I built this utility tool, just change the object in the javascript using the same schema and you will get the formula printed on screen. that way you can quickly update the list of characters to replace and have the speed of putting it all in a single operation.

Here's the tool: Replace accent function generator (codepen.io)

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
chico 638 on at

Like (1)

Report

this is one fo those posts that needs a trophy icon, in addition to the thumbs up!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
nisuomi 5 on at

Like (1)

Report

Thank you! This saved my time (and maybe a life).

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
chico 638 on at

Like (0)

Report

I hope this messages reaches.
Earlier this year I came accross this post and it blew my mind.
It was a huge help to have copied that BIG piece of nested replace functions and we instantly put it to good use dealing with international new hire flows.

Sadly, the formula was in a flow that got accidentally deleted by another on the team....
and the codepen.io page seems to be tossing errors now..

Does anyone have that big formula saved somewhere to re-share???

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
chico 638 on at

Like (0)

Report
meanwhile,
found this one to help with common Spanish characters.

replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( replace( outputs('FullName'), 'Á', 'A' ), 'á', 'a' ), 'É', 'E' ), 'é', 'e' ), 'Í', 'I' ), 'í', 'i' ), 'Ó', 'O' ), 'ó', 'o' ), 'Ú', 'U' ), 'ú', 'u' ), 'Ñ', 'N' ), 'ñ', 'n' )

Was this reply helpful? Yes No