how to clean PHP line break

Question

I need to clean the following PHP array and remove all the empty variables. The array is the made from the string which was copied from a third part software and contains lots of line breaks.

The ways in which I tried and failed are given below.

The array:

Array ( 
[0] => 
[1] => 1.BOB/SMITH RANI MRS
[2] => 2.JON/SMITH MSTR(CHD/01NOV01) 
[3] => 
[4] => 3.BOB/JONES MSTR(CHD/01JUN01)
[5] => 4 EK 004 U 26JUL 6*LHRDXB HK3 2040 0630 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 
[6] => 5 EK 584 U 27JUL 7*DXBDAC HK3 1315 1955 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 
[7] => 6 EK 583 U 09SEP 2*DACDXB HK3 1015 1305 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 
[8] => 7 EK 005 U 09SEP 2*DXBLHR HK3 1545 2015 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 )

function that I tried and failed:

public static function filter_array_empty_value($arr){
    foreach($arr as $k=>$v){
        
        $v = str_replace("\n","",$v);
        $v = str_replace(" ","",$v);
        $v = trim($v);
        
        for($i=1;$i<=50;$i++){
            $v = str_replace("\n","",$v);
            $v = str_replace(" ","",$v);
        }
        
        if($v == " " || $v == NULL || empty($v) || strlen($v)<1){
            unset($arr[$k]);
        }
    }

    return $arr;
}

Note: The array[0] has string length of 4 even after trimming.

Help is appreciated.

Related: [Remove lines with no visible characters when reading a file](https://stackoverflow.com/q/5767310/2943403) — mickmackusa, Apr 23 '23 at 06:57

felipsmartins · Accepted Answer · 2023-04-22T19:06:06.490

5

Assuming your array of lines is the result of file() function, just use the flags that own file function supports. Like this:

$filelines = file('filename.txt', FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES | FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES)

When using the optional flags FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES|FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES file function returns all lines except empty lines

edited Apr 22 '23 at 19:06

answered May 30 '14 at 17:07

felipsmartins

13,269
4
48
56

This one worked excellent. I guess the problem was that I was using fread() and fget(). – origin May 30 '14 at 18:14

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 16 '22 at 10:31

$arr = array ( 
    0 => "",
    1 => "1.BOB/SMITH RANI MRS",
    2 => "2.JON/SMITH MSTR(CHD/01NOV01) ",
    3 => "   ",
    4 => "3.BOB/JONES MSTR(CHD/01JUN01)",
    5 => "4 EK 004 U 26JUL 6*LHRDXB HK3 2040 0630 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2\n ",
    6 => "5 EK 584 U 27JUL 7*DXBDAC HK3 1315 1955 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 ",
    7 => " 6 EK 583 U 09SEP 2*DACDXB HK3 1015 1305 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 ",
    8 => "7 EK 005 U 09SEP 2*DXBLHR HK3 1545 2015 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2", 
); 


function filter_array_empty_value($arr){
    foreach($arr as $k=>$v){
        $v = str_replace("\n","",$v);
        $v = str_replace(" ","",$v);
        $v = trim($v);
        $arr[$k] = $v;

        if($v == ""){
            unset($arr[$k]);
        }
    }
    return $arr;
}

$arr2 = filter_array_empty_value($arr);

print_r($arr2);

the output is:

Array
(
    [1] => 1.BOB/SMITHRANIMRS
    [2] => 2.JON/SMITHMSTR(CHD/01NOV01)
    [4] => 3.BOB/JONESMSTR(CHD/01JUN01)
    [5] => 4EK004U26JUL6*LHRDXBHK32040063027JULEEK/GAQNL2
    [6] => 5EK584U27JUL7*DXBDACHK31315195527JULEEK/GAQNL2
    [7] => 6EK583U09SEP2*DACDXBHK31015130509SEPEEK/GAQNL2
    [8] => 7EK005U09SEP2*DXBLHRHK31545201509SEPEEK/GAQNL2
)

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

0

Nothing simpler then that:

public static function filter_array_empty_value($arr){
    //Output Array
    $output = [];

    //Iterate through each item
    foreach($arr as $item){
        //Make sure, all not printable Chracters are removed (If you want UTF-8 Characters instead of asci use "/[\x00-\x08\x0B\x0C\x0E-\x1F\x80-\x9F]/u"
        $item = preg_replace('/[^[:print:]]/', '', $item);
        $item = trim($item);

        //If item is not empty, append it to the Output
        if ($item !== '') {
            $output[] = $item;
        }
    }
    return $output ;
}

As stated in the Comments, we need to delete unprintable Characters:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/8171868/2441442

edited May 23 '17 at 11:57

Community

1
1

answered May 30 '14 at 16:52

Christian Gollhardt

16,510
17
74
111

To be clear, this would remove all lines that have "0" as its value too. Have you tested this? Will it work if the value is " " (two spaces), or even one? – Ascherer May 30 '14 at 16:57
This was my primary attempt bro. This did not work as the keys have non printable values. Unfortunately, I dont know how many non-printable characters php support. – origin May 30 '14 at 16:57

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 16 '22 at 10:34

to remove empty values in array use array_filter

and to recreate sequential indexes use array_values like below

 $arr =Array ( 
"0" => "",
"1" => "1.BOB/SMITH RANI MRS",
"2" => "2.JON/SMITH MSTR(CHD/01NOV01) ",
"3" => "",
"4" => "3.BOB/JONES MSTR(CHD/01JUN01)",
"5" => "4 EK 004 U 26JUL 6*LHRDXB HK3 2040 0630 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 ",
"6" => "5 EK 584 U 27JUL 7*DXBDAC HK3 1315 1955 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 ",
"7" => "6 EK 583 U 09SEP 2*DACDXB HK3 1015 1305 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 ",
"8" => "7 EK 005 U 09SEP 2*DXBLHR HK3 1545 2015 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 ");

print_r(array_values(array_filter($arr)));

output

  Array
(
    [0] => 1.BOB/SMITH RANI MRS
    [1] => 2.JON/SMITH MSTR(CHD/01NOV01) 
    [2] => 3.BOB/JONES MSTR(CHD/01JUN01)
    [3] => 4 EK 004 U 26JUL 6*LHRDXB HK3 2040 0630 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 
    [4] => 5 EK 584 U 27JUL 7*DXBDAC HK3 1315 1955 27JUL E EK/GAQNL2 
    [5] => 6 EK 583 U 09SEP 2*DACDXB HK3 1015 1305 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 
    [6] => 7 EK 005 U 09SEP 2*DXBLHR HK3 1545 2015 09SEP E EK/GAQNL2 
)

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered May 30 '14 at 17:07

0

You should probably look at how you are splitting the string to get the array and do it there, but this is pretty simple:

$array = preg_grep('/[^\s]+/', $array);

If there are other invisible characters then add them in the character class [].

If you need to re-index:

$array = array_values(preg_grep('/[^\s]+/', $array));

answered May 30 '14 at 17:07

AbraCadaver

78,200
7
66
87

`[^\s]` is `\S` – mickmackusa Apr 23 '23 at 06:48

how to clean PHP line break

5 Answers5