trim

The trim() function is used to remove whitespaces from the beginning and end of a string, at the same time.

By default, it removes any of the following characters from the start and end of the string:

  • Space " "

  • Horizontal tab \t

  • Newline \n

  • Carriage return \r

  • Null-byte \0

Unbreakable spaces are not considered here, nor any other character, unless specified.

This function does not support multi-bytes characters. It actually uses single bytes characters, and may leave inconsistent characters, or, with luck, it may actually removes the characters. Multibyte trim shall be done with mb_trim().

trim() removes all the provided characters, as long as it finds them leading or trailing the string. It is not possible to remove only one characters with this function.

trim() is completed with ltrim(), which is removing characters on the left part of the string, and with rtrim(), which is removing characters on the right part of the string.

<?php

    $string = "\n\t PHP ";
    $trimmed = trim($string);
    // 'PHP'

    $b = 'aaaaaab';
    print trim($a, 'a'); //b

    $a = '我是法国人';
    print $a;               //我是法国人
    print trim($a, '人我'); //��法国

?>

Documentation

See also How to trim strings with PHP.

Related : Non Breakable Spaces