asked on 12/21/2014

How to Remove Characters from a String Using PHP

I know there is a much better way to do this. I have an input string and people sometimes hit the wrong character when they're trying to enter a word.

If the input string is "myword\" or "]myword" or "/myword" (without quotes) I need it converted to: "myword"

Using long hand PHP code, I get what I want this way. But I know there's a much better way. Please inform me oh wise ones...

$rawtext = "myword\";
$value = str_replace("\\", "", $value); 
$value = str_replace("/", "", $value); 
$value = str_replace("]", "", $value); 
die ("Rawtext starts as [".$rawtext."] outputs a value of [".$value."]");

Open in new window

This will display: Rawtext starts as [myword\] outputs a value of [myword]

Thanks.

PHP

Last Comment

Ray Paseur

12/23/2014

SOLUTION

Gary

12/21/2014

THIS SOLUTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.

View this solution by signing up for a free trial.

Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.

See Pricing Options

Start Free Trial

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Ray Paseur

12/21/2014

THIS SOLUTION IS ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.

View this solution by signing up for a free trial.

Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.

See Pricing Options

Start Free Trial

Paul Konstanski

12/22/2014

ASKER

Ray,

Thanks. That's one of the best explanations I've ever had for how that works.

I actually set it up as a function so that I can use it multiple places.

function charStrip($txtIn, $keep) {
	// $txtIn is the raw text, 
	// keep uses thes options A=Alphabet Upper, a=Alpha Lower, 9=Numbers 
	//  then all other is the actual characters, spaces, period, dashes...
	// SET UP REGULAR EXPRESSIONS OR FUNCTION CALLBACKS
	$regex
		= '#'  // REGULAR EXPRESSION DELIMITER
		. '['  // START OF CHARACTER CLASS
		. '^'; // NEGATION: MATCH NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS
		for ($z = 0; $z < strlen($keep); $z++) {
			$cur = substr($keep,$z,1);
			switch ($cur) {
				case "A" : $regex .= 'A-Z'; break; // ALPHABET UPPER
				case "a" : $regex .= 'a-z'; break; // ALPHABET LOWER
				case "9" : $regex .= '0-9'; break; // NUMBERS
				default : $regex .= $cur;  // other characters
			} // switch (substr($keep,$z,0)) {
		} // for ($i = 0; $i <= 99; $i++)	
	$regex .= ']'              // END OF CHARACTER CLASS
		. '#'              // REGEX DELIMITER
		#. 'i'              // FLAGS: CASE-INSENSITIVE
		;
	return preg_replace($regex, NULL, $txtIn);		
} // function charStrip($txtIn, $keep) {

Open in new window

Ray Paseur

12/23/2014

Lookis good. Thanks for the points, and thanks for using E-E, ~Ray