- var_dump: documentation ( source)
<?php
var_dump(iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT",'Äther'));
var_dump(iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT",'Regen'));
var_dump(iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT",'König'));
var_dump(iconv("utf-8","ascii//TRANSLIT",'Straße'));