trim all whitespace around string

Question

So I have this output:

Line 1.
Line 2.
Line 3.
Line 4. Data
Line 5.
Line 6.

I want to have:

Line1. Data

What I do:

trim($dom->saveHTML(), "\n");

What I get (6th line removed, I want line 1, 2, 3, 5 to be removed as well):

Line 1.
Line 2.
Line 3.
Line 4. Data
Line 5.

What I get literally:

What I get literally

There's probably something in line 1, 2, 3, and 5 that isn't a `\n` character that you're trimming. Look at the data with a hex viewer. — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:32
Like `\t`, a space, `\r`, `\0`, `\x0b` etc. etc. etc. etc. There's thousands of characters that look like whitespace. — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:33
This may help you http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2109325/how-to-strip-all-spaces-out-of-a-string-in-php — KyleHodgetts, Apr 20 '14 at 19:34
That said, you realize that `trim($string, "\n")` **only** trims the `\n` character, right? — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:36
How do you want to show that data in hexviewer: http://scr.hu/1n9b/28e0d — Szymon Toda, Apr 20 '14 at 19:36
By downloading the data and using a hex viewer or using one of the thousand implementations of a hex viewer that exists in PHP or even using the lazy method that is `urlencode`. Do something. — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:37
@h2ooooooo I do know It's trimming only `n1`, as I expect only that to surround my data. — Szymon Toda, Apr 20 '14 at 19:38
@Ultra So what makes you think there isn't a `\r` in there? or a space? or a tab? or a NULL byte? or a vertical tab? — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:38
@h2ooooooo `urlencode`: `string '%0D%0A%0D%0A%09%0D%0Adata%0D%0A%09' (length=34)` — Szymon Toda, Apr 20 '14 at 19:38
Try removing the second parameter it will take care all of the whitespace characters. — Rahil Wazir, Apr 20 '14 at 19:39
Then you know that it's equal to `0D`, `0A`, etc., which is `\r` and `\n`. The text you pasted is equal to `\r\n\r\n\t\r\ndata\r\n\t`. Not `\n`. Use an [ascii table](http://www.asciitable.com). — h2ooooooo, Apr 20 '14 at 19:40

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 20 '14 at 19:44

5

Your string is equal to \r\n\r\n\t\r\ndata\r\n\t which is CR LF CR LF TAB CR LF "data" CR LF TAB. You're only trimming LF (\n) in your trim() call, which is why you don't trim CR (\r) and TAB (\t) also present in your string.

Try removing the second parameter (which specifies what characters should be trimmed), it will take care all of the whitespace characters.

As of Docs:

This function returns a string with whitespace stripped from the beginning and end of str. Without the second parameter, trim() will strip these characters:

" " (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)), the NUL-byte.
"\x0B" (ASCII 11 (0x0B)), a vertical tab.

edited Apr 20 '14 at 19:44

h2ooooooo

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answered Apr 20 '14 at 19:42

Rahil Wazir

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Windows and Linux return characters are not the same. On Linux it would be `/n` and on Windows `\r\n` or are that worng bells ringing? – Szymon Toda Apr 20 '14 at 19:47
@Ultra I guess you mean: `On Linux it would be \n` – Andreas Louv Apr 20 '14 at 19:48
@Ultra Different OS'es use `\r`, `\n`, `\r\n` or in rare instances `\n\r`. [Newline - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline). – h2ooooooo Apr 20 '14 at 19:49
@Ultra There is no line ending `/n` in Linux – Rahil Wazir Apr 20 '14 at 19:50

trim all whitespace around string

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