normalizeFieldValue function

String normalizeFieldValue(String value)

Normalizes a raw BibTeX field value to a clean display string.

The following transformations are applied:

• Outer braces {...} or quotes "..." are stripped.
• --- is replaced with an em dash (—).
• -- is replaced with an en dash (–).
• Common LaTeX accent sequences (e.g., \'e → é) are expanded.
• Remaining unmatched { and } are removed.

normalizeFieldValue('{pages 10--20}') == 'pages 10–20'
normalizeFieldValue('"A---B"') == 'A—B'
normalizeFieldValue("{St\\'ephane Ducasse}") == 'Stéphane Ducasse'

Implementation

String normalizeFieldValue(String value) {
  var text = value.trim();
  while ((text.startsWith('{') && text.endsWith('}')) ||
      (text.startsWith('"') && text.endsWith('"'))) {
    text = text.substring(1, text.length - 1).trim();
  }
  return text
      .replaceAll('---', '\u2014') // em dash first, before en dash
      .replaceAll('--', '\u2013') // en dash
      .replaceAll(r"\'a", 'á')
      .replaceAll(r'\"a', 'ä')
      .replaceAll(r'\`a', 'à')
      .replaceAll(r'\^a', 'â')
      .replaceAll(r"\'e", 'é')
      .replaceAll(r'\"e', 'ë')
      .replaceAll(r'\`e', 'è')
      .replaceAll(r'\^e', 'ê')
      .replaceAll(r"\'i", 'í')
      .replaceAll(r'\"i', 'ï')
      .replaceAll(r'\`i', 'ì')
      .replaceAll(r'\^i', 'î')
      .replaceAll(r"\'o", 'ó')
      .replaceAll(r'\"o', 'ö')
      .replaceAll(r'\`o', 'ò')
      .replaceAll(r'\^o', 'ô')
      .replaceAll(r"\'u", 'ú')
      .replaceAll(r'\"u', 'ü')
      .replaceAll(r'\`u', 'ù')
      .replaceAll(r'\^u', 'û')
      .replaceAll(r"\'c", 'ć')
      .replaceAll(r'\c{c}', 'ç')
      .replaceAll(r'\ss{}', 'ß')
      .replaceAll(r'\ss', 'ß')
      .replaceAll(r'{\em ', '') // italic markup
      .replaceAll(r'\em ', '')
      .replaceAll(r'\{', '{')
      .replaceAll(r'\}', '}')
      .replaceAll(_remainingBraces, '');
}