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You can, however, if ß is not present (for example on non-german keyboards or on a teletype), put any ß back into ss, that's right. (It's obvious: an ß replaces an individable ss.) In Switzerland, the ß isn't used, instead, any ss reamains ss (e. g. Strasse instead of Straße). But if you're refering to the german language, the use of the ß ligature is required for correctness.

To explicitely force the use of ß where no ß is available, it's possible to use sz (e. g. Strasze instead of Straße); this form is mostly advised in cases where you need to differentiate between ss and ß, for example in names of persons. The combination sz does not appear in reality that much so it can easily be used to indicate ß in a name.

A good example why ß and ss aren't the same are the words "die Masse" (the mass, the matter) and "die Maße" (the dimensions). In order to indicate this difference without being able to use the ß, the latter one could be written "die Masze", too. But as I mentioned before, this special isn't used very often.

Wow, I'm sounding like a teacher... :-)