Can't get str_replace() to strip out spaces in a PHP string

Question

Hi, I am getting a PHP string which I need to strip the spaces out of. I have used the following code but when I echo $classname it just displays the string still with the spaces in it.

   <?php
     $fieldname = the_sub_field('venue_title');
     $classname = str_replace(' ', '', $fieldname);
     echo $classname;
   ?>

Use an hex editor to view the bytes, if the spaces aren't `20` in HEX then it's not a "normal" space. You may use a simple function in PHP to convert to HEX. — HamZa, May 15 '13 at 11:15
possible duplicate of [To strip whitespaces inside a variable in PHP](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1279774/to-strip-whitespaces-inside-a-variable-in-php) — Léo Léopold Hertz 준영, Mar 25 '14 at 19:02

score 34 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 25 '14 at 00:36

34

Try to add u-parameter for regex-pattern, because a string can have UTF-8 encoding:

$classname  =  preg_replace('/\s+/u', '', $fieldname);

edited Mar 25 '14 at 00:36

T.Todua

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answered Jan 27 '14 at 19:57

Alekzander

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Same here. String was retrived from Wordpress meta field. Was saved in admin panel, after "copy-paste" from old site, with different encoding... – Artur Czyżewski Oct 27 '16 at 12:43
2

you are the real mvp – Adrien G Jun 11 '20 at 09:46
That did the trick – Thanasis May 19 '22 at 11:37

score 16 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '13 at 11:13

16

If you know the white space is only due to spaces, you can use:

$classname = str_replace(' ','',$fieldname );

But if it could be due to space, you can use:

$classname = preg_replace('/\s+/','',$fieldname )

answered May 15 '13 at 11:13

Vijaya Pandey

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Try substituting the `\s+` for `\h+` for horizontal whitespace, this will retain line breaks, if needed. – Martin Mar 16 '17 at 20:29

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered May 15 '13 at 11:10

5

The problem might be the character not being a space, but another whitespace character.

Try

$classname = preg_replace('/\s/', '', $fieldname);

answered May 15 '13 at 11:10

ty812

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Amir · Answer 4 · 2013-05-15T11:14:50.023

3

use trim like this

TRIM($fieldname);

EDIT:

preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $fieldname);

edited May 15 '13 at 11:14

answered May 15 '13 at 11:09

Amir

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`trim()` will only remove whitespace from the start and end of the string – billyonecan May 15 '13 at 11:10
'trim()' only trims at the beginning or the end of a string. In Paul's example, whitespace characters might be within the string. – ty812 May 15 '13 at 11:11

score 2 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

2

It could be that the space is not really a space, but other form of whitesspace.

You might want to try:

$classname = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $fieldname);

From here.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:46

Community

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answered May 15 '13 at 11:10

try substituting `\h+` for horizontal whitespace, this will retain line breaks, if needed. – Martin Mar 16 '17 at 20:28

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered May 15 '13 at 15:41

2

The issue was the field that it was pulling, not the rest of the php. 'the_sub_field('venue_title')' pulls a field from the wordpress plugin 'Advanced Custom Fields' but this function is intended to display the data rather than just retrieve it. Instead i used 'get_sub_field('venue_title')' and it worked. cheers for the help

answered May 15 '13 at 15:41

Paul Elliot

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This is the correct answer to this threat and needs to be marked so – JackSD Nov 14 '13 at 21:43

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Mar 16 '17 at 21:08

0

<?php
  $fieldname = "I  am  21  Years  Old";
  $classname = str_replace(' ', '', $fieldname);
  echo $classname;
?>

This runs perfectly. Check value return by this function: the_sub_field('venue_title');

edited Mar 16 '17 at 21:08

answered May 15 '13 at 11:22

Blu

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I think the issue is that the string is not getting treated as a string. it needs a " on either side. how would you do this in php? eg $fieldname = "'" . the_sub_field('venue_title') . "'"; – Paul Elliot May 15 '13 at 11:27
use " ". the_sub_field('venue_title')."" or maybe ""+the_sub_field('venue_title')+"" – Blu May 15 '13 at 11:39

Can't get str_replace() to strip out spaces in a PHP string

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