Removing white-spaces / empty values from a PHP array

Question

I'm developing a word counting application and I'm using following code to load words to an array.

$str = ' Some string is here     ...  Another string.. ';
$str = trim($str);
$str = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $str);
$str_array = explode(" ", $str);
$str_array = array_filter($str_array);

But the issue is I'm getting empty values in my array like follows.

Array
(
    [0] => Word1
    [1] => Word2
    [2] => Word3
    [3] => 
    [4] => 
    [5] => 
)

I've tried array_filter($str_array) and more stackoverflow answers. But I was failed to get this done. Can some one please help me to fix this issue? Thanks!

Well, I'm not going to answer the actual question, but you can change your regex to (\w+) to extract words. It'd be more efficient. — Hamid Nazari
– Hamid Nazari, Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:25
@OP: Testing out the string you have provided works fine here, you should either be able to reproduce this problem or give the exact string you are having trouble with. — AyB
– AyB, Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:28
This is the actual string They provide a wide range of services that will help you with your Internet marketing concerns. — madhushankarox
– madhushankarox, Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:35
I'm phrasing a word document actually. $str contains phrased string. With var_dump, these empty values shows as string '' (length=1) — madhushankarox
– madhushankarox, Commented Mar 3, 2014 at 5:46

Shankar Narayana Damodaran · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 06:00:10Z

7

Trim the array elements using trim by array_map and finally do an array_filter using strlen as the call-back.

<?php
$arr=Array
(
    0 => 'Word1',
    1 => 'Word2',
    2 => 'Word3',
    3 => ' ',
    4 => '',
    5 => ''
);

$new_arr = array_filter(array_map('trim',$arr),'strlen');
print_r($new_arr);

Demo

edited Mar 3, 2014 at 6:00

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 5:20

Shankar Narayana Damodaran

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5 Comments

Shankar Narayana Damodaran Over a year ago

Can you var_export your array on your question before array_filter ? See the demo

evergreen Over a year ago

using print_r(array_filter($str_array));

madhushankarox Over a year ago

got 531 => '', 532 => '', 533 => '',

Shankar Narayana Damodaran Over a year ago

@madhushankarox, I had asked you to the update the var_export value of your array on the question without its hard to see what is inside your array.

madhushankarox Over a year ago

Please see this >> s29.postimg.org/ju987r6ef/Capture.png that string contains some special characters

Nishant Solanki · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 05:22:31Z

1

Try this...

 foreach ($array as $key=>$value) 
 { 
     if($value == '')
     {
       unset($array[$key]);
     }
 }

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 5:22

Nishant Solanki

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8 Comments

madhushankarox Over a year ago

It's actually a word document. I'm phrasing a .doc and loading contents. But when I use var_export, these empty values returns as 531 => '', 532 => '', 533 => ''

madhushankarox Over a year ago

Here is the text They provide a wide range of services that will help you with your Internet marketing concerns.

Nishant Solanki Over a year ago

its strange.. when I directly pass this string.. it doesnt give any blank value in the array..

Nishant Solanki Over a year ago

try printing the array using var_dump and check if it returns length for that blank values...

madhushankarox Over a year ago

My variable contains that string.

|

user2706194 · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 06:10:26Z

0

$str = ' Some string is here     ...  Another string.. ';
$str = trim($str);
$str = str_replace('  ', ' ', $str); //replace two space to single space
$str_array = explode(" ", $str);

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 6:10

user2706194

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Comments

madhushankarox · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-03 06:37:21Z

0

I was able to fix this issue with $str = preg_replace('/[^(\x20-\x7F)]*/','', $str);

Source

        $str = strip_tags($str);
        $str = trim($str);
        $str = preg_replace('/ HYPERLINK "[^"]*" /', '', $str);
        $str = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $str);
        $str = preg_replace('/[^(\x20-\x7F)]*/','', $str);

edited Mar 3, 2014 at 6:37

answered Mar 3, 2014 at 6:32

madhushankarox

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