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# trim

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

trim -- Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a string

## Description

string trim ( string str [, string charlist] )

This function returns a string with whitespace stripped from the beginning and end of `str`. Without the second parameter, trim() will strip these characters:

- " " (ASCII `32` (`0x20`)), an ordinary space.

- "\t" (ASCII `9` (`0x09`)), a tab.

- "\n" (ASCII `10` (`0x0A`)), a new line (line feed).

- "\r" (ASCII `13` (`0x0D`)), a carriage return.

- "\0" (ASCII `0` (`0x00`)), the `NUL`-byte.

- "\x0B" (ASCII `11` (`0x0B`)), a vertical tab.

## Parameters

`str`

  The string that will be trimmed.

`charlist`

  Optionally, the stripped characters can also be specified using the `charlist` parameter. Simply list all characters that you want to be stripped. With `..` you can specify a range of characters.

## Return Values

The trimmed string.

## ChangeLog

Version | Description
--- | ---
4.1.0 | The optional `charlist` parameter was added.

## Examples

Example 1. Usage example of trim()

`<?php
$text = "\t\tThese are a few words :) ... ";
$binary = "\x09Example string\x0A";
$hello = "Hello World";
var_dump($text, $binary, $hello);
print "\n";
$trimmed = trim($text);
var_dump($trimmed);
$trimmed = trim($text, " \t.");
var_dump($trimmed);
$trimmed = trim($hello, "Hdle");
var_dump($trimmed);
// trim the ASCII control characters at the beginning and end of $binary
// (from 0 to 31 inclusive)
$clean = trim($binary, "\x00..\x1F");
var_dump($clean);
?>`

The above example will output:

    string(32) "        These are a few words :) ...  "
    string(16) "    Example string
    "
    string(11) "Hello World"

    string(28) "These are a few words :) ..."
    string(24) "These are a few words :)"
    string(5) "o Wor"
    string(14) "Example string"

Example 2. Trimming array values with trim()

`<?php function trim_value(&$value) { $value = trim($value); } $fruit = array('apple','banana ', ' cranberry '); var_dump($fruit); array_walk($fruit, 'trim_value'); var_dump($fruit); ?>`

The above example will output:

    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      string(5) "apple"
      [1]=>
      string(7) "banana "
      [2]=>
      string(11) " cranberry "
    }
    array(3) {
      [0]=>
      string(5) "apple"
      [1]=>
      string(6) "banana"
      [2]=>
      string(9) "cranberry"
    }

## See Also

ltrim()
rtrim()

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