title: How can I normalize / asciify Unicode characters in Google Sheets?
body: <p>I'm trying to write a formula for Google Sheets which will convert Unicode characters with diacritics to their plain ASCII equivalents.</p>
  
  <p>I see that <a href="https://support.google.com/docs/answer/3098245?hl=en" rel="noreferrer">Google uses RE2</a> in its "REGEXREPLACE" function. And I see that <a href="https://github.com/google/re2/blob/master/doc/syntax.txt" rel="noreferrer">RE2 offers Unicode character classes</a>.</p>
  
  <p>I tried to write a formula (similar to <a href="https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/docs/ea4TGG-7Gs8" rel="noreferrer">this one</a>):</p>
  
  <pre><code>REGEXREPLACE("público","(\pL)\pM*","$1")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But Sheets produces the following error:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Function REGEXREPLACE parameter 2 value "\pL" is not a valid regular expression.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I suppose I could write a formula consisting of a long set of nested SUBSTITUTE functions (<a href="https://gist.github.com/akora/51b2933a2554776d7144" rel="noreferrer">Like this one</a>), but that seems pretty awful.</p>
  
  <p>Can any offer a suggestion for a better way to normalize Unicode letters with diacritical/accent marks in a Google Sheets formula?</p>