How can I remove all empty values when I explode a string using PHP? [duplicate]

Question

I was wondering how can I remove all empty values when I explode a string using PHP for example, lets say a user enters ",jay,john,,,bill,glenn,,,"?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Here is part of the code that explodes user submitted values.

$tags = explode(",", $_POST['tag']); 

Answer 1

E.g. via array_filter() or by using the PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY option on preg_split()

<?php // only for testing purposes ... $_POST['tag'] = ",jay,john,,,bill,glenn,,0,,";  echo "--- version 1: array_filter ----\n"; // note that this also filters "0" out, since (bool)"0" is FALSE in php // array_filter() called with only one parameter tests each element as a boolean value // see http://docs.php.net/language.types.type-juggling $tags = array_filter( explode(",", $_POST['tag']) );  var_dump($tags);  echo "--- version 2: array_filter/strlen ----\n"; // this one keeps the "0" element // array_filter() calls strlen() for each element of the array and tests the result as a boolean value $tags = array_filter( explode(",", $_POST['tag']), 'strlen' );  var_dump($tags);  echo "--- version 3: PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY ----\n"; $tags = preg_split('/,/', $_POST['tag'], -1, PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY); var_dump($tags); 

prints

--- version 1: array_filter ---- array(4) {   [1]=>   string(3) "jay"   [2]=>   string(4) "john"   [5]=>   string(4) "bill"   [6]=>   string(5) "glenn" } --- version 2: array_filter/strlen ---- array(5) {   [1]=>   string(3) "jay"   [2]=>   string(4) "john"   [5]=>   string(4) "bill"   [6]=>   string(5) "glenn"   [8]=>   string(1) "0" } --- version 3: PREG_SPLIT_NO_EMPTY ---- array(5) {   [0]=>   string(3) "jay"   [1]=>   string(4) "john"   [2]=>   string(4) "bill"   [3]=>   string(5) "glenn"   [4]=>   string(1) "0" }