The other day someone asked me for help writing a rule. She had text with “accented” characters, and wanted to replace them with the non-accented version. For example, she wanted to change the word “Résumé” to “Resume.”
But it was even worse than that. Her text was actually “html encoded.” This is a way of converting “special characters” so that web browsers render them properly. For example, the ampersand is a special character, so it might look like & in an html file. In her case, instead of “RĂ©sumé” she actually had “Résumeé”
It turns out I couldn’t think of a good solution, and I hate it when that happens. So I sat down and wrote two new functions: HTMLDECODE and TRANSLIT.
First, HTMLDECODE will convert the encoded special characters into their true form; e.g., it converts “Résumeé” into “RĂ©sumĂ©.” Next, TRANSLIT (which is short for “transliterate”) converts the “accented” characters to non-accented ones; so it would convert “RĂ©sumé” to “Resume.”
Now, I could have made a single function that does both, but just in case you want one and not the other, I made them distinct. You can of course combine them, like this:
TRANSLIT(HTMLDECODE(“Résumé”)
These functions will be available with our January software update. Enjoy!
Blogpost by Anthony Alford, The Feed Doctor
Â
Looking for more information on Comparison Shopping?
Comparison Shopping Misconceptions: Don’t Let These Missteps Trip Up Your Strategy
This white paper covers common comparison shopping misconceptions to make sure you’re not making mistakes with your CSE strategy. Â
