In PHP, the trim() function is used to remove whitespace and other predefined characters from the beginning and end of a string.

Syntax:

trim(string $string, string $characters = " \n\r\t\v\0"): string

• $string: The input string.
• $characters (optional): A list of characters to strip (default: whitespace, newline, tab, etc.)

Common Examples

1. Remove whitespace from start and end

$text = "   Hello World!   ";
$trimmed = trim($text);
echo $trimmed; // Output: "Hello World!"

2. Remove specific characters

$text = "###PHP###";
$cleaned = trim($text, "#");
echo $cleaned; // Output: "PHP"

3. Remove multiple characters

$text = "++--Hello--++";
$cleaned = trim($text, "+-");
echo $cleaned; // Output: "Hello"

4. Remove newline, tabs, etc.

$text = "\n\t Hello World \r\n";
echo trim($text); // Output: "Hello World"

Related Functions

• ltrim() – Removes characters only from the beginning (left side).
• rtrim() – Removes characters only from the end (right side).

echo ltrim("   Hello");  // "Hello"
echo rtrim("World   ");  // "World"