#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

#in this case hash table is easy
#to generate...easier than first code..

my %TranslateTable = qw (  
Á     &Aacute
á     &aacute
É     &Eacute
é     &eacute
Í     &Iacute
í     &iacute
Ñ     &Ntilde
ñ     &ntilde
Ó     &Oacute
ó     &oacute
Ú     &Uacute
ú     &uacute
Ü     &Uuml
ü     &uuml
¿     &iquest
¡     &iexcl
);

my $s = "El supersÁnico de los Indi ";
my $xlated = fix_utf8($s);

print "$s\n";
print "****translated = $xlated\n";


sub fix_utf8
{
   my $in_string = shift;
   my $newstring ="";
   foreach my $char (split (//,$in_string) )
   {
      $char = $TranslateTable{$char} if $TranslateTable{$char};
      $newstring .= $char;
   }
  return $newstring;
}

__END__
######### prints 
El supersÁnico de los Indi 
****translated = El supers&Aacutenico de los Indi