Bash: Convert non-ASCII characters to ASCII

Question

How can I convert a string like Žvaigždės aukštybėj užges or äüöÖÜÄ to Zvaigzdes aukstybej uzges or auoOUA, respectively, using Bash?

Basically I just want to convert all characters which aren't in the Latin alphabet.

Thanks

user_95382 · Answer

Depending on your machine you can try piping your strings through

iconv -f utf-8 -t ascii//translit

(or whatever your encoding is, if it's not utf-8)

user_199536 · Answer

You might be able to use iconv.

For example, the string:

Žvaigždės aukštybėj užges or äüöÖÜÄ

is in file testutf8.txt, utf8 format.

Running command:

iconv -f UTF8 -t US-ASCII//TRANSLIT testutf8.txt

results in:

Zvaigzdes aukstybej uzges or auoOUA

user_238978 · Answer

echo Hej på dig, du den dära | iconv -f utf-8 -t us-ascii//TRANSLIT

gives:

Hej pa dig, du den dara

user_9705192 · Answer

You can also use the python library unidecode to perform so:

$ echo "Žvaigždės aukštybėj užges äüöÖÜÄ" | unidecode

Output:

Zvaigzdes aukstybej uzges auoOUA

See this post for other approaches.