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PHP ltrim() Function - Tutorial Republic

Topic: PHP String ReferencePrev|Next

Description

The ltrim() function strips whitespace and other characters from the beginning of a string.

The following table summarizes the technical details of this function.

Return Value: Returns the trimmed string.
Version: PHP 4+

Syntax

The basic syntax of the ltrim() function is given with:

ltrim(string, strip_characters);

The following example shows the ltrim() function in action.

<?php
// Sample string
$str = "  Hello World! ";

// Stripping whitespace from the beginning
echo ltrim($str);
?>

Parameters

The ltrim() function accepts the following parameters.

Parameter Description
string Required. Specifies the string to be trimmed.
strip_characters

Optional. Specifies the list of all characters that you want to be stripped.

If this parameter is not specified, ltrim() will strip all the following characters:

  • " " - an ordinary space
  • "\t" - a tab
  • "\n" - a new line
  • "\r" - a carriage return
  • "\0" - the NULL-byte
  • "\v" - a vertical tab

More Examples

Here're some more examples showing how ltrim() function actually works:

In the following example only spaces and tab character from the beginning of the string will be removed. The whitespace characters at the end and inside the string will remain intact.

<?php
// Sample string
$str = "  \tHello\n World!\n ";

// Trimming the leading whitespace
echo ltrim($str);
?>

In the following example only space, plus, and minus from left end of the string will be removed.

<?php
// Sample string
$str = "  ++--\tHello World!++-- ";

// Removing characters from the left side
echo ltrim($str, " +-");
?>