preg_replace to remove invalid character (allow utf-8)

Question

I use the following function to clean-up my string before I use it on my export:

function cleanString($source) {
    $source = str_replace('&', 'and', $source);
    $source = preg_replace('~[^\p{L}\p{N}]++~u', ' ', $source);
    return trim($source);
}

This works fine, but I want to modify it to allow , (commas) and parenthesis ( and ).

At the moment, this is what's happening:

Name, Brand Name (Some & Slogan) ==> Name Brand Name Some and Slogan

How can I update the above regex pattern to allow commas and parenthesis?

I tried the following: $source = preg_replace('~[^\p{L}\p{N}]++~u\,', ' ', $source); and I am getting the error: Unknown modifier '\'.

Any ideas?

In a character class you do not need to escape parenthesis.

Zoltan Magyar
– Zoltan Magyar

2014-12-03 12:16:36 +00:00
Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 12:16 — Zoltan Magyar
– Zoltan Magyar, Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 12:16
@ZoltanMagyar parenthesis are not inside character class.

Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj

2014-12-03 12:17:10 +00:00
Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 12:17 — Avinash Raj
– Avinash Raj, Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 12:17

anubhava · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-03 12:15:35Z

1

You can include (, ) and , in your negation character class:

$source = preg_replace('~[^\p{L}\p{N}(),]+~u', ' ', $source);

RegEx Demo

answered Dec 3, 2014 at 12:15

anubhava

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anubhava Over a year ago

Also there is no need to use ++ here.

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