Question

I have a string where I want to remove all the whitespace around a certain character using preg_replace. In my case this character is /.

For example:

first part / second part would become first part/second part

Or let’s say that character is : now:

first part : second part would become first part:second part

I couldn’t find an example on how to do this… Thanks!

Answer 1

$string = preg_replace("/\s*([\/:])\s*/", "$1", $string);

Explanation:

• \s* means any amount (*) of whitespace (\s)
• [\/:] is either a / or a :. If you want another character, just add it here.
• the brackets are a capture group which you reference with the $1 meaning that if it matches a : then the $1 will mean :.