Methods to remove specific characters from string

Question

I am trying 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 = ?;

Should I use preg_replace, str_replace or something else?

Answer 1

You have to remove brackets only from the beginning or end of the string; in which case, preg_replace works. The trim is easier and makes more sense.

preg_replace() - Removes beginning and trailing brackets.

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

str_replace() -  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
             );

I hope this helps you.