[SOLVED] TRIM not TRIMMING everything...

[Yammyguy]

Hello,

here's a simple issue I'm having.  I have an array with 4 values as follows:

 

Array ( [0] => " KW " [1] => " KVAR " [2] => " " [3] => " " )

 

I want to strip the double quotes from each value, and count how many array cells actually contain an actual value once the quotes are removed. so I did this:

 

 

$used = 0;
for ($x = 0; $x < $4; $x++){
     $header_data[$x] = trim($header_data[$x], '"');
     if($header_data[$x] !== ""){
          $used++;
     }
}
print_r($header_data);
echo $used;

I thought this was very straight forward - apparently not! :S

 

here's my print_r of that array:

 

Array ( [0] => KW [1] => KVAR [2] => [3] => " ) 

 

and the output for my $used variable is "0"

 

First of all, for some reason, this will not remove the last double quote in the last array cell?? I'm so confused?  I don't get it.  And second, am I using the correct syntax for checking a null value in an array?

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, or help!  And if you have a more efficient way of performing this task, feel free to post!

CHEERS!

~C.

 

[PFMaBiSmAd]

The last array element probably has a new-line after the second ".

 

Try var_dump instead of print_r as var_dump will also show the length of the data.

[Yammyguy]

here's my output from the var_dump()

 

array(4) { [0]=> string(7) " KW " [1]=> string(7) " KVAR " [2]=> string(7) " " [3]=> string(169) " " " }

 

obviously there's a third quote (which is really odd) - but the trim should remove every instance of the double quote, no?  What pray tel, would you suggest?

[sasa]

<?php
$header_data = array ( 0 => '" KW "', 1 => '" KVAR "', 2 => '" "', 3 => '" "' );
$used = 0;
for ($x = 0; $x < 4; $x++){
     $header_data[$x] = trim($header_data[$x], ' "');
     if($header_data[$x] != ""){
          $used++;
     }
}
print_r($header_data);
echo $used;

?>

[PFMaBiSmAd]

Based on the lengths of the strings, you have a significant number of non-printing characters in the data (all elements). Either nulls, new-lines or something else...

 

Trim only trims from the start and end of the string. When it encounters a character not in the list of characters to be trimmed it stops. You probably want str_replace instead of trim and you may in fact want to remove all non-alphabetic characters.

[Yammyguy]

Based on the lengths of the strings, you have a significant number of non-printing characters in the data (all elements). Either nulls, new-lines or something else...

 

Trim only trims from the start and end of the string. When it encounters a character not in the list of characters to be trimmed it stops. You probably want str_replace instead of trim and you may in fact want to remove all non-alphabetic characters.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll work on those changes and let you know if I encounter any problems. Thanks for your help!

[Yammyguy]

Okay - I've replaced the str_replace by inserting the following code:

$used = 0;
for ($x = 0; $x < $4; $x++){
     #new code line here#
     $header_data[$x] = str_replace('"',"",$header_data[$x]);
     #end new code#
     //$header_data[$x] = trim($header_data[$x], '"');
     if($header_data[$x] !== ""){
          $used++;
     }
}
print_r($header_data);
echo $used;

 

Doesn't really work out - my problem is that I can't figure out how to remove everything but letters in each of the array.

If anyone can help - I must say I'm still stuck.

[premiso]

<?php
$header_data[] = "testtest1234_'\"";
$header_data[] = "testtest5678-;:[].,<>?_'\"adsf";

$used = 0;

for ($x = 0; $x < 2; $x++){
     #new code line here#
     $header_data[$x] = preg_replace('~([^a-z]+)~i',"",$header_data[$x]);
     #end new code#
     //$header_data[$x] = trim($header_data[$x], '"');
     if($header_data[$x] !== ""){
          $used++;
     }
}
echo "<pre>";
var_dump($header_data);
echo $used;

die();
?>

 

 

Output:

array(2) {
  [0]=>
  string( "testtest"
  [1]=>
  string(12) "testtestadsf"
}
2

 

[Yammyguy]

Thanks!

 

as soon as I tried the preg_replace() function - you posted...

 

I have one quick question though, is the '~([^a-z]+)~i' portion of the preg_replace() a specific structure?  I don't think I understand how entering those values will know to remove everything :-\

 

Not sure I'm explaining my question properly...  ???

[premiso]

The ~ just states everything in between is part of the regex. The ( ) is the conditional. Inside the [ ] is the characters we want to test. If the item is not a-z it gets replaced the ^ before the a-z indicates not. The + says match 1 (it may be 0) or more characters that are not a-z. If it finds the match then it replaces it.

 

Regex can be complicated and take some time to understand, but is very powerful and useful.

 

EDIT:

To any regex experts, if what I have stated is wrong, please correct me I am still learning regex.

[Yammyguy]

The ~ just states everything in between is part of the regex. The ( ) is the conditional. Inside the [ ] is the characters we want to test. If the item is not a-z it gets replaced the ^ before the a-z indicates not. The + says match 1 (it may be 0) or more characters that are not a-z. If it finds the match then it replaces it.

 

Regex can be complicated and take some time to understand, but is very powerful and useful.

Awesome!  Thank you so much!