How to remove white spaces only beginning/end of a string using PHP ?

We have given a string and the task is to remove white space only from the beginning of a string or the end from a string str in PHP. In order to do this task, we have the following methods in PHP:

Method 1: Using ltrim() Method:

The ltrim() method is used to strip whitespace only from the beginning of a string.

Syntax:

ltrim($string, $charlist)

Example :

<?php
// PHP program to remove white space
// from beginning of a string 
  
$str = "  Geeks  for  Geeks   "; 
  
// Using ltrim() function 
// removes whitespaces from 
// beginning of a string 
$str = ltrim($str);

// Printing the result
echo $str; 

$len = strlen($str);

echo "\nLength of String: ";  
echo $len;
?>

Geeks  for  Geeks   
Length of String: 20

Method 2: Using rtrim() Method

The rtrim() method is used to strip whitespace only from the end of a string.

Syntax:

rtrim($string, $charlist)

Example :

<?php
// PHP program to remove white space
// from the end of a string 
  
$str = "  Geeks  for  Geeks   "; 
  
// Using rtrim() function to
// remove whitespaces from 
// end of a string 
$str = rtrim($str);

// Printing the result
echo $str; 

$len = strlen($str); 
echo "\nLength of String : ";  
echo $len;
?>

  Geeks  for  Geeks
Length of String : 19

Method 3: Using a Custom Regular Expression with preg_replace()

Using preg_replace() with a custom regular expression /^\s+|\s+$/u removes whitespace from the beginning and end of a string in PHP. This method ensures precise trimming by matching and replacing leading and trailing whitespace characters.

Example

<?php
$string = "  Hello, World!  ";
$trimmedString = preg_replace('/^\s+|\s+$/u', '', $string);
echo $trimmedString;
?>

Hello, World!

Method 4: Using trim() Method

The trim() method in PHP is used to strip whitespace (or other characters) from both the beginning and end of a string. This method is a straightforward and efficient way to clean up the string.

Syntax:

trim($string, $charlist)

Example: The trim() function is highly useful when you need to remove unwanted whitespace from both ends of a string, making it another effective approach for string manipulation in PHP.

<?php
// Declare a string with whitespace at the beginning and end
$string = "   Hello World!   ";

// Remove whitespace from both the beginning and end of the string
$trimmedString = trim($string);

// Output the result
echo $trimmedString;
?>

Hello World!

Method 5: Using the mb_ereg_replace() Function

The mb_ereg_replace() function in PHP can be used to remove whitespace from the beginning and end of a string. This function is particularly useful for handling multibyte character encodings, ensuring that the string is processed correctly regardless of the character set.

Example

<?php
// Declare a string with whitespace at the beginning and end
$string = "   Hello World!   ";


$trimmedString = mb_ereg_replace('^\s+|\s+$', '', $string);

// Output the result
echo $trimmedString;
?>

Hello World!