diff -r 3d54acec55d6 -r 27f71b0a772d src/hdabo/utils.py
--- a/src/hdabo/utils.py	Wed Dec 10 10:05:38 2014 +0100
+++ b/src/hdabo/utils.py	Wed Feb 18 01:53:34 2015 +0100
@@ -1,9 +1,13 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+import codecs
 import collections
+import math
+import re
+import sys
 import unicodedata
-import sys
-import math
-import codecs
+
+import unidecode
+
 
 ###
 # allow to declare a property as a decorator
@@ -342,12 +346,27 @@
         return ItemsView(self)
 ## end of http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576693/ }}}
 
-def remove_accents(str):
-    nkfd_form = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', unicode(str))
+def remove_accents(lne):
+    nkfd_form = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', unicode(lne))
     return u"".join([c for c in nkfd_form if not unicodedata.combining(c)])
 
-def normalize(str):
-    return remove_accents(str).lower().replace(u"œ",u"oe")
+def normalize(lne):
+    return remove_accents(lne).lower().replace(u"œ",u"oe")
+
+def sanitize(line, separator = '-', ascii_only = True):
+
+    if not line:
+        return ''
+    
+    #Transliterate non-ASCII characters
+    line =  unidecode.unidecode(line)
+    #Remove all characters that are not the separator, a-z, 0-9, or whitespace
+    line = re.sub('[^\%sa-z0-9\s]+'%separator, '', line.lower())
+    #// Replace all separator characters and whitespace by a single separator
+    line = re.sub('[\%s\s]+' % separator, separator, line)
+
+    return line.strip(separator)
+
 
 def show_progress(current_line, total_line, label, width, writer=None):