Removing a single quote out of a string in PHP

Question

I'm trying to remove the ' out of my string.

Here's my code:

$page_title = strtolower(wp_title( '', false, 'right' ));
echo $page_title;
echo "<br/>";
$clean = preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9\-]/', '', $page_title);
echo $clean;

Output:

regio’s 
regio8217s

Why does it return 8217 instead of ''?

Thanks in advance

I'm not getting the same result you do: http://codepad.org/Ir5ZIsLk — Alexandre Danault, Jun 19 '13 at 19:01
Hi Alex-Info.net, that's because you used the static string. Like @Gumbo said, the ' is inserted using the character reference. Any idea how we can remove that certain character? I'm learning by the minute... :) — Stijn Hoste, Jun 19 '13 at 19:09

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '13 at 19:03

1

Your quote has been converted to its unicode value (’) (see here for example). It's a special character, not a standard one.

answered Jun 19 '13 at 19:03

Hobo

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The OP asked why, which is the question I answered. Though fair point. A solution would depend on where the OP wanted the problem addressed - when the value's stored, or when it's retrieved – Hobo Jun 19 '13 at 19:12
I want the ' to be removed out of the string. – Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:14
You could use [str_replace](http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-replace.php) explicitly, replacing '’' with '' before your `preg_replace`. The problem with that is it's not very generic - you could get other escaped characters in there. Maybe `preg_replace(/&[^;]+;/, '', $page_title);` would be better. But it's still open to problems – Hobo Jun 19 '13 at 19:17
Mhm that's right. Let's try "carré" for example. That preg_replace statement throws an error: Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '/', expecting ')' – Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:19
Glad to help; I updated my comment before I saw yours. `str_replace` only handles the single quote case - you might want a `preg_replace` if there are other characters you need to handle – Hobo Jun 19 '13 at 19:22
Sorry, I've been away. The problems with typing code without being able to test. I think I missed the quotes around the regex: `preg_replace('/&[^;]+;/', '', $page_title);`. – Hobo Jun 19 '13 at 20:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 19 '13 at 19:04

0

Try preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9\-]/u', '', $page_title);

the u after the pattern processes unicode characters too.

answered Jun 19 '13 at 19:04

Nate from Kalamazoo

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Thanks for your reply. But it doesn't work... It keeps returning "regio8217s" – Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:07
I assume you're viewing this output in a web browser, right? Do a view-source on those results and see if it's really the raw unicode character in there, or really the HTML-encoded version. – Nate from Kalamazoo Jun 19 '13 at 19:14
You may need to do an additional replacement specifically to look for and replace HTML-encoded unicode characters, like preg_replace('/[0-9]+;/g', '', $page_title); – Nate from Kalamazoo Jun 19 '13 at 19:15
It outputs this in the browser:
regio’s
regio8217s
– Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:16
Warning: preg_replace(): Unknown modifier 'g' – Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:18
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Ah yes, PHP's preg_replace is global by default, so there's no need for the "g" after the pattern. – Nate from Kalamazoo Jun 19 '13 at 19:21
This preg_replace statement only addresses the single quote, I want all unicode symbols to be removed. For example carré --> carre – Stijn Hoste Jun 19 '13 at 19:27
That's an entirely different task. Now you're talking about replacing accented characters with their unaccented equivalents: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3371697/replacing-accented-characters-php – Nate from Kalamazoo Jun 19 '13 at 19:37

Removing a single quote out of a string in PHP

2 Answers2