str_replace PHP script can't handle foreign characters such as umlauts robustly

Question

The following script does not always correctly catch and convert foreign characters. Could someone show me what I'm missing to get it to be more robust?

<?php
include("../index_head.inc.php");
$content = implode("",(@file("current.txt")));

$url = "http://XXXXXX.html?no_body=1";
$content = file_get_contents($url,'r');

if (isset($_GET['showcurrent']) && $_GET['showcurrent'] == '')
    {
    $content = substr($content,1,strpos($content,"<hr ")-1);
    }
    else 
    {
    $content = str_replace("<br style=\"clear:both\" />\n</p>", "</p>",$content);   
    $content = str_replace("ck1\"><img", "ck1\" target=_blank><img",$content);  
    };

$content = str_replace("<h3>current</h3>", "",$content);

echo "<div id=\"service\" style=\"width: 660px;padding-left:5px\">",str_replace("current.html","current.html",$content),"</div>";

include("../index_footer.inc.php");
?>

New information: Pekka, you gave me the idea to check how the page emits without str_replace():

<?php
include("../index_head.inc.php");
$content = implode("",(@file("current.txt")));
$url = "XXXXXX.html?no_body=1";
$content = file_get_contents($url,'r');
echo "<div id=\"service\" style=\"width: 660px;padding-left:5px\">",$content,"</div>";

It seems the problem lies elsewhere because I get the same mangling even without using str_replace()! If you can help me get this sorted out, I would sure appreciate it. I have seen your wish list. ;)

Answer 1

Did you include the charset in php?

try this:

header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');

If not working check if your file is already saved in utf8 before str replace:

utf8_encode ( string $data );

In the opposite case use:

utf8_decode( string $data );

Hope it helps!

Answer 2

Thank you SBO - It sure did help! I simply changed the code to:

<?php
include("../index_head.inc.php");
$content = implode("",(@file("current.txt")));

$url = "http://XXXXXX.html?no_body=1";
$content = file_get_contents(utf8_encode($url),'r');

if (isset($_GET['showcurrent']) && $_GET['showcurrent'] == '')
    {
    $content = substr($content,1,strpos($content,"<hr ")-1);
    }
else 
{
$content = str_replace("<br style=\"clear:both\" />\n</p>", "</p>",$content);   
$content = str_replace("ck1\"><img", "ck1\" target=_blank><img",$content);  
};

$content = str_replace("<h3>current</h3>", "",$content);

echo "<div id=\"service\" style=\"width: 660px;padding-left:5px\">",str_replace("current.html","current.html",utf8_decode($content)),"</div>";

include("../index_footer.inc.php");
?>

and everything is working fine. Thank you very much for your help.