In this tutorial, we look at the PHP trim function. We look at how you can remove whitespaces and characters from a string using the trim function in PHP.
Table of Contents - PHP Trim:
- What does trim do?
- Code and Explanation
- Closing thoughts
What does the PHP trim[] function do?
The trim[]
function in PHP removes whitespace or any other predefined character from both the left and right sides of a string.
ltrim[]
and rtrim[]
are used to remove these whitespaces or other characters from the left and right sides of the string. However, making use of just the trim[]
function without specifying ‘l’
or ‘r’
removes characters from both sides.
Code & Explanation:
In this section,
we look at the various syntax, parameters, and return values used in the trim[]
function. Post that we look at a code snippet using the trim[]
function.
Syntax:
trim[$string, $charlist]
Parameters
- $string - Required. This is the string or the variable containing the string from which you want to remove whitespaces or characters.
- $charlist - Optional. This parameter specifies the character that needs to be removed from the string. If left empty, all the characters mentioned below would be removed.
“\0”
– NULL“\t”
– tab“\n”
– newline“\x0B”
– vertical tab“\r”
– carriage return” ”
– ordinary white space
Return Value:
A modified string with whitespaces or the specified characters removed from both sides is returned.
Code using PHP Trim:
The output for the above code snippet would be as follows:
Hire freelance developer
Now let’s look at a case where we pass a second argument.
The output for this code snippet would be the following:
e freelance develope
As you can see the “hir” from “Hire” and the “r” from “developer” were removed.
Closing thoughts - PHP trim[]:
There are no caveats as such while using the PHP trim[] function. I would recommend practicing the trim[]
method as it can get tricky at times. Also, try using the ltrim[]
and rtrim[]
both these functions have very specific use cases.
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[PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8]
trim — Strip whitespace [or other characters] from the beginning and end of a string
Description
trim[string $string
, string $characters
= " \n\r\t\v\x00"]: string
- " "
[ASCII
32
[0x20
]], an ordinary space. - "\t" [ASCII
9
[0x09
]], a tab. - "\n" [ASCII
10
[0x0A
]], a new line [line feed]. - "\r"
[ASCII
13
[0x0D
]], a carriage return. - "\0" [ASCII
0
[0x00
]], theNUL
-byte. - "\v" [ASCII
11
[0x0B
]], a vertical tab.
Parameters
string
The string that will be trimmed.
characters
Optionally, the stripped characters can also be specified using the characters
parameter. Simply list all characters that you want to be stripped. With ..
you can specify a range of characters.
Return Values
The trimmed string.
Examples
Example #1 Usage example of trim[]
The above example will output:
string[32] " These are a few words :] ... " string[16] " Example string " string[11] "Hello World" string[28] "These are a few words :] ..." string[24] "These are a few words :]" string[5] "o Wor" string[9] "ello Worl" string[14] "Example string"
Example #2 Trimming array values with trim[]
The above example will output:
array[3] { [0]=> string[5] "apple" [1]=> string[7] "banana " [2]=> string[11] " cranberry " } array[3] { [0]=> string[5] "apple" [1]=> string[6] "banana" [2]=> string[9] "cranberry" }
Notes
Note: Possible gotcha: removing middle characters
Because trim[] trims characters from the beginning and end of a string, it may be confusing when characters are [or are not] removed from the middle.
trim['abc', 'bad']
removes both 'a' and 'b' because it trims 'a' thus moving 'b' to the beginning to also be trimmed. So, this is why it "works" whereastrim['abc', 'b']
seemingly does not.
See Also
- ltrim[] - Strip whitespace [or other characters] from the beginning of a string
- rtrim[] - Strip whitespace [or other characters] from the end of a string
- str_replace[] - Replace all occurrences of the search string with the replacement string
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