Remove whitespace from beginning & end of a String in PHP

This article, will discuss multiple ways to remove whitespace from beginning & end of a string in PHP.

Table Of Contents

Background

In PHP, strings often come with unwanted whitespace at the beginning and end, especially when handling user inputs or file data. For instance, a string like

"  This is a sample string  "

It needs to be cleaned up to

"This is a sample string"

eliminating the spaces at both ends.

Solution 1: Using trim()

The trim() function in PHP is a straightforward way to strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a string.

Let’s see the complete example,

<?php
$originalString = "  This is a sample string  ";

// Use trim to remove whitespace from the beginning and end
$trimmedString = trim($originalString);

// Display the result
echo $trimmedString;
?>

Output

This is a sample string

In this code, trim($originalString) effectively removes all leading and trailing whitespace from $originalString. The trim() function is a simple and efficient tool for cleaning strings, commonly used in form input processing.

Solution 2: Using Regular Expressions with preg_replace()

For more complex scenarios or when you need specific control over what constitutes ‘whitespace’, you can use the preg_replace() function with a regular expression.

Let’s see the complete example,

<?php
$originalString = "  This is a sample string  ";

// Use regular expression to remove whitespace from the beginning and end
$trimmedString = preg_replace('/^s+|s+$/u', '', $originalString);

// Display the result
echo $trimmedString;
?>

Output

This is a sample string

This code uses the regular expression /^s+|s+$/u to identify and remove whitespace at the start (^s+) and end (s+$) of the string. The u modifier is used for UTF-8 encoding support, which is crucial for handling multibyte characters. This approach offers more flexibility than trim() but is slightly more complex.

Summary

Removing whitespace from the start and end of a string in PHP can be efficiently done using the trim() function or the preg_replace() function with a suitable regular expression. The choice between these methods depends on the specific requirements of your task, such as the need for simple trimming or more advanced pattern matching. Both methods are effective for cleaning up strings in various PHP applications.