PHP Invisible string

Question

I have this array of string:

array(59) {
    [0]=> string(25) "shadowcores.twifysoft.net"
    [1]=> string(11) " "
}

Obviously there are 57 elements more. I need to know how can I remove this:

string(11) " "

There is no string to display but the string itself its not empty. How can I check for these types of values before adding them into my array?

Protip: Add header('Content-Type: text/plain'); to the top of your script. — Amal
– Amal, Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 16:39
already tried that the thing is the string seems to have hidden characters or something — Raggaer
– Raggaer, Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 16:41
Perhaps there is some unicode in there? Apparently something thinks there are 11 characters (or bytes). — SunSparc
– SunSparc, Commented Dec 4, 2013 at 16:44

Amal · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 17:32:33Z

8

Use the following:

$array = array_filter($yourArray, 'trim');

edited Dec 4, 2013 at 17:32

Amal

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answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:40

Paul Lo

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6 Comments

Paul Lo Over a year ago

@AmalMurali array_filter($yourArray, 'trim') will remove that ' ' element from the array while array_map('trim',$array) trim it to '' and still keep it in the array.

Amal Over a year ago

@PaulLo: Yeah, but however, the callback in your code is redundant, as it just repeats the default behavior.

Paul Lo Over a year ago

@AmalMurali Yeah, if incorrectly use array_filter($yourArray, trim()) as my original post, it actually have the same effect as array_map('trim', $array)

Amal Over a year ago

@PaulLo: array_filter($yourArray, trim()) would never work, because trim() expects at least one parameter and you'll be passing none. The correct way to pass callback is: array_filter($array, 'callback');. My point was this: array_filter() by default filters out empty array elements, so the trim callback is redundant and not actually necessary.

Paul Lo Over a year ago

@AmalMurali Oh yeah, as you said, I found array_filter($yourArray, trim()) would never work. But looks like we cannot just use array_filter($array) in this case since that ' ' blank string is not evaluated as an empty element.

|

John Conde · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 16:40:33Z

3

Loop through the array and check to see if the string is empty after trimming whitespace

if (empty(trim($string))) {
     // unset from array
}

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:40

John Conde

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Comments

kinghfb · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 16:40:31Z

2

Trim them beforehand or use array_filter to get rid of the just-whitespace elements

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:40

kinghfb

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Comments

carlgarner · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 16:42:36Z

2

There are multiple ways to skin this cat.

Personally, I'd go for running the variable through trim() and then check to see if this value is empty() or has a strlen() == 0. If this is the case, you can skip adding it to the array.

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:42

carlgarner

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1 Comment

Tomás Over a year ago

He explicitly tell us that string(11) " ". Thus the string has 11 characters ... ?

Community · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-17 19:30:35Z

2

To remove empty array values, you can use array_filter().

From the manual page:

If no callback is supplied, all entries of array equal to FALSE (see converting to boolean) will be removed.

So, simply call:

$array = array_filter($array);

And if you want to remove whitespace from the beginning and end of all array values, you can use array_map():

$array = array_map('trim', $array);

edited Nov 17, 2023 at 19:30

CommunityBot

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answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:48

Amal

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Comments

Asenar · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-04 16:43:31Z

1

There is several options. to remove theses values from the array you can use that technique:

foreach ($array as $k => $v)
{
  if (trim($v) == '')
    unset($array[$k]);
}

answered Dec 4, 2013 at 16:43

Asenar

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