Methods to remove specific characters from string?

Question

I need to remove the brackets "[" and "]" from $widget_text in the variable value below and store the result in $widget_id.

$widget_text = '[widget_and-some-text]'; $widget_id = ?; 

Use preg_replace, str_replace or something else?

Answer 1

There are several methods available, and they can sometimes be made to perform exactly the same task, like preg_replace/str_replace. But, perhaps you want to remove brackets only from the beginning or end of the string; in which case preg_replace works. But, if there could be several brackets, preg_replace can do the job too. But trim is easier and makes more sense.

preg_replace() - removes beginning and trailing brackets

$widget_id = preg_replace(array('/^\[/','/\]$/'), '',$widget_text);       

str_replace() - this removes brackets anywhere in the text

$widget_id = str_replace(array('[',']'), '',$widget_text); 

trim() - trims brackets from beginning and end

$widget_id = trim($widget_text,'[]') 

substr() - does the same as trim() (assuming the widget text does not include any closing brackets within the text)

$widget_id = substr($widget_text,                     $start = strspn($widget_text, '['),                     strcspn($widget_text, ']') - $start              );