strip white space

[zeroradius]

I need a function that strips white space from a string for my registration page. php_strip_whitespace() only works with 5.1 and newer so that won't work. I'm using trim() already but that only removes it from the ends. php.net isn't showing anything else when i run a search.

any sugestions?

[John]

str_replace(" ", "", $string); 

[zeroradius]

thanks

[mikelbring]

str_replace(" ", "", $string); 

Will bring words together, won't be good for multiword variables.

function clearWhiteSpace($s){
        $str = trim($s);
        $ret_str='';
        for($i=0;$i < strlen($str);$i++){
            if(substr($str, $i, 1) != " "){
                $ret_str .= trim(substr($str, $i, 1)); 
            }else{ 
                while(substr($str,$i,1) == " "){
                    $i++; 
                } 
                $ret_str.= " "; 
                $i--; // *** 
            }
        } 
        return $ret_str; 
    } 

Is good if you want to maintain the word syntax.

[John]

I try to avoid loops if possible. You could simply use the following to preserve single spaces in sentences.

$string = preg_replace('/\s{2,}/', ' ', trim($string)); 

[mikelbring]

ahh thank you. Im not very good with regex.

[Jordan]

Be careful with John's regular expression, if all you want to strip out is spaces. The regular expression above strips all whitespace. Example:

<?php
$string = "This is a test\r\nTesting\r\nWhere are mye linebreaks?\r\n";
echo $string; // With line break
$string = preg_replace('/\s{2,}/', ' ', trim($string));
echo $string; // Stripped
?>

Output:

This is a test
Testing
Where are mye linebreaks?
This is a test Testing Where are mye linebreaks?

You could use this just to remove more than one space, preserve Unix style line breaks and keep spacing between words:

$string = preg_replace('/ {2,}/', ' ', trim($string)); 

Example:

<?php
$string = "A lot of     spaces   here\r\nPreserves Unix style   line   breaks?\r\n";
echo $string; // With Spaces
$string = preg_replace('/ {2,}/', ' ', trim($string));
echo $string; // Stripped and preserves line breaks
?>

Output:

A lot of     spaces   here
Preserves Unix style   line   breaks?
A lot of spaces here
Preserves Unix style line breaks?