I was wondering how can I remove all empty values when I explode a string using PHP for example, lets say a user enters ",jay,john,,,bill,glenn,,,"?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Here is part of the code that explodes user submitted values.
$tags = explode(",", $_POST['tag']);
E.g. via array_filter() or by using the PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY option on preg_split()
<?php
// only for testing purposes ...
$_POST['tag'] = ",jay,john,,,bill,glenn,,0,,";
echo "--- version 1: array_filter ----\n";
// note that this also filters "0" out, since (bool)"0" is FALSE in php
// array_filter() called with only one parameter tests each element as a boolean value
// see http://docs.php.net/language.types.type-juggling
$tags = array_filter( explode(",", $_POST['tag']) );
var_dump($tags);
echo "--- version 2: array_filter/strlen ----\n";
// this one keeps the "0" element
// array_filter() calls strlen() for each element of the array and tests the result as a boolean value
$tags = array_filter( explode(",", $_POST['tag']), 'strlen' );
var_dump($tags);
echo "--- version 3: PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY ----\n";
$tags = preg_split('/,/', $_POST['tag'], -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY);
var_dump($tags);
prints
--- version 1: array_filter ----
array(4) {
[1]=>
string(3) "jay"
[2]=>
string(4) "john"
[5]=>
string(4) "bill"
[6]=>
string(5) "glenn"
}
--- version 2: array_filter/strlen ----
array(5) {
[1]=>
string(3) "jay"
[2]=>
string(4) "john"
[5]=>
string(4) "bill"
[6]=>
string(5) "glenn"
[8]=>
string(1) "0"
}
--- version 3: PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY ----
array(5) {
[0]=>
string(3) "jay"
[1]=>
string(4) "john"
[2]=>
string(4) "bill"
[3]=>
string(5) "glenn"
[4]=>
string(1) "0"
}
$tags = preg_split('/,/', $_POST['tag'], -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY); alone works. Thanks!
array_filter method he listed first is probably more standard, but as he mentioned, it could remove values you wanted to keep, so he included the preg_split method as an alternative.
array_values$tags = array_diff(explode(",", $_POST['tag']),array(""));
//replace multiple commas
$tags = preg_replace('/,+/', ',', $_POST['tag']);
//explode
$tags = explode(',', $tags);
Simply try:
$tags = explode(", ", $_POST['tag']);
Adding space after comma, does the job!
