Remove spaces before periods ? str_replace

Question

I'm trying to remove all spaces before period and commas from a text before i echo it.

The text could look like this , and have spaces all over . Bla bla bla...

Here is my code, although it successfully removes any ( ) and replaces it with "nothing":

$strip_metar = array('( )' => '', ' . ' => '. ', ' , ' => ', ');
$output_this = $text->print_pretty();
$output_this = str_replace(array_keys($strip_metar),
                           array_values($strip_metar),
                           $output_this);

Any ideas?

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2326125/remove-multiple-whitespaces-in-php — hdvianna, Jul 30 '13 at 18:56

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 30 '13 at 19:04

I don't have 50 rep so I can't comment, but this is just to expand on Moylin's answer:

To make it into 1 query just do as such:

$output_this = preg_replace('/\s+(?=[\.,])/', '', $output_this);

Explanation of the regex:

\s matches a space

+ matches between 1 and infinity times.

(?= ) is a positive lookahead. This means "You have to find this AFTER the main group, but don't include it."

[ ] is a set of characters to match.

\. is an escaped period (Because . matches anything in regex)

and , is a comma!

Definite improvement, it's time i reread regex documentation. — Moylin, Jul 30 '13 at 19:07

user20232359723568423357842364 · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-30T18:44:49.103

2

To remove all spaces before period. and comma, you can pass arrays to the str_replace function:

$output_this = str_replace(array(' .',' ,'),array('.',','),$string);

In the example you have provided, you will not strip spaces before a period, if the period is not followed by a space ' . '

edited Jul 30 '13 at 18:44

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:36

user20232359723568423357842364

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Moylin · Answer 3 · 2013-07-30T18:58:51.127

1

$output_this = preg_replace('/\s+\./', '.', $output_this);
$output_this = preg_replace('/\s+,/', ',', $output_this);

This should be accurate.

Sorry i'm not better to optimize this into a single query for you. edit: removed $ for end of string, not sure you would want it that way.

edited Jul 30 '13 at 18:58

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:48

Moylin

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mdurchholz · Answer 4 · 2013-07-30T18:48:54.583

0

$content = "This is , some string .";
$content = str_replace( ' .', '.',$content);
$content = str_replace( ' ,', ',',$content);
echo $content;

edited Jul 30 '13 at 18:48

answered Jul 30 '13 at 18:40

mdurchholz

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This will output "This is, some string." – mdurchholz Jul 30 '13 at 18:43

Remove spaces before periods ? str_replace

4 Answers4