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<?php

    /**
     * Formats string, removes accents from string
     *
     * @param string $string String to format
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public static function stripAccent($string)
    {
        $accents = '/&([A-Za-z]{1,2})(grave|acute|circ|cedil|uml|lig);/';
        $string_encoded = htmlentities($string, ENT_NOQUOTES, 'UTF-8');

        $string = preg_replace($accents, '$1', $string_encoded);

        return $string;
    }