No Success In Removing <P> </p>

[matthewtbaker]

Hi,

 

I've been trying to remove a suborn <p> </p> which sometimes appears at the bottom of a database entry after the CMS in use strips out 'unsafe' HTML.

 

The value returned from my SQL string is:

 

(8, 'Title', 'Alias', '', '<p>My Paragraph</p>\r\n<p> </p>', '', 1);

 

I've tried removing the unwanted <p> </p> using the code and find variations below, but still no success.

$myIntro= $db->intro;

$find = array('<p></p>','<p> </p>','<p> </p>',' ','\n');
$myIntro = str_ireplace($find,'', $myIntro);

 

 

Does anyone have any other approaches to try and strip this out from my string? I can't dump all <p> tags as I still need the rest for formatting.

 

Many thanks

Matt

[seanlim]

What do you mean "still no success"? Your code above seems to be able to strip out the unwanted tags in your example.

 

What's your criteria for "success"?

[matthewtbaker]

What do you mean "still no success"? Your code above seems to be able to strip out the unwanted tags in your example.

 

What's your criteria for "success"?

 

Hi seanlim,

 

Even though I run the code (above) the unwanted '<p> </p>' is still present in the variable and echoed to my page. It interferes with layout and alignment.

 

Thanks

[drisate]

You can strip out HTML of your string using

$string = strip_tags($myIntro);

 

or you can str_replace one tag at the time

$find = array('<p>', '</p>');

[matthewtbaker]

You can strip out HTML of your string using

$string = strip_tags($myIntro);

 

or you can str_replace one tag at the time

$find = array('<p>', '</p>');

 

Thanks drisate,

 

Unfortunately that solution will not work as I still need to keep the other <p> tags for correct formatting. I only wish to target the <p> tags with a blank space.

[Jessica]

<?php
$myIntro= '<p>My Paragraph</p>\r\n<p> </p>';
$myIntro = rtrim($myIntro, '<p> </p>');
echo $myIntro;

 

<p>My Paragraph</p>\r\n

[matthewtbaker]

<?php
$myIntro= '<p>My Paragraph</p>\r\n<p> </p>';
$myIntro = rtrim($myIntro, '<p> </p>');
echo $myIntro;

 

Thanks Jessica. Unfortunately it did not work. I'm thinking that maybe the " " is not actually white space but hidden characters stored in the db?...

[Jessica]

It works for that string.

 

Do a var_dump on the string.

[matthewtbaker]

It works for that string.

 

Do a var_dump on the string.

 

Did a var_dump and the <p> </p> is still present. Most frustrating.

 

 

<td><p>My Paragraph </p><p> </p></td>

Edited October 5, 2012 by matthewtbaker

[Jessica]

*eyeroll*.

 

Do a var_dump and post the contents of it. Var_dump is not to remove strings.

 

The biggest problem is that you apparently don't see a difference between

"<td><p>My Paragraph </p><p> </p></td>"

AND

"<p>My Paragraph</p>\r\n<p> </p>"

 

Which IS the real string you're working with? God.

[matthewtbaker]

Thanks Jessica. I am perfectly aware of var_dump. In this case it does not prove useful as the character which is held within the <p> </p> does not render. I have since done further investigation into the mystery space and it is clear it is not actually 'white space' so I will work on another method to remove it. Allah.

[kicken]

var_dump(bin2hex($string));

 

That will give you the string encoded as hexdecimal digits, so you can see what exactly is between those p tags.