How do I strip all spaces out of a string in PHP?

Nadia S.

—March 15, 2024

The ProblemThe Problem

How do I strip all spaces out of a string in PHP?

The SolutionThe Solution

To remove the spaces from a string in PHP, use the str_replace() function. Use a space ' ' as the first argument, an empty string '' as the second argument, and the string as the third argument. For example:

$string = 'This string might have spaces.';
$strippedString = str_replace(' ', '', $string);

echo $strippedString;

This returns the original string with spaces removed:

Thisstringmighthavespaces

If you want to remove all whitespace from a string, including tabs and line breaks, you can use the preg_replace() function. Pass in the '/\s+/' regular expression, followed by an empty string '', and the actual string variable. For example:

$string = "This string may contain   tabs, spaces, and even a\nlinebreak.";
$strippedString = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $string);

echo $strippedString;

Output:

Thisstringmaycontaintabs,spaces,andevenalinebreak.