how to skip values and marks on string

hello guys,

if there is a string like that

..Lorem$%#Dolor__Sit@#:Amet...__=%^*&

okay this is a string i want to let php work with it to make it like that

-Lorem-Dolor-Sit-Amet

so what i need is to skip all of this kind of marks and specially dots with a dash

thanks guys

 

PHP function here: http://htmlblog.net/seo-friendly-url-in-php/

 

thank you so mush, that exactly what im looking for

 

sorry guys but im haveing a problem here

this function

    function skipURL($string){
		$string = preg_replace("`\[.*\]`U","",$string);
		$string = preg_replace('`&(amp;)?#?[a-z0-9]+;`i','-',$string);
		$string = htmlentities($string, ENT_COMPAT, 'utf-8');
		$string = preg_replace( "`&([a-z])(acute|uml|circ|grave|ring|cedil|slash|tilde|caron|lig|quot|rsquo);`i","\\1", $string );
		$string = preg_replace( array("`[^a-z0-9]`i","`[-]+`") , "-", $string);
		return strtolower(trim($string, '-'));
	}

PHP:

this works like what i need.

but im haveing a problem this function works good with english language but what if there is any kind of other language

like arabic for examble

if i have this string with english

LOREM _ DolOr :^*(

the function going to make like that

lorem-dolor

but what if there a string like that

english :: عربى

it's going to be like that

english

i just want it to be like that

english-عربى

so please if anyone can help me with this

thanks

 

any ideas ??