How to recognise blank spaces using regular expressions

Question

how would I extend this preg_replace (in PHP), using regular expressions to replace white spaces also..

$this->permalink = preg_replace('[^a-z0-9]', '-', $this->permalink);

It's for generating page permalinks based on a page title. 'About me' will become 'about-me'. everything's fine except it doesn't remove the space yet.

Thanks!

Honestly, you should probably try a quick regex tutorial. This is really basic stuff. — coreyward
– coreyward, Commented Jul 10, 2011 at 17:34
You could change your regex to [^a-z0-9]|\s, but your above expression works for me. — Bojangles
– Bojangles, Commented Jul 10, 2011 at 17:34

Francois Deschenes · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-10 17:40:28Z

2

As pointed out in the comment, you're regular expression is missing the delimiters. I've also added the i modifier so that it's case-insensitive.

Example:

$this->permalink = preg_replace('/[^a-z0-9]/i', '-', $this->permalink);

Here's a working example: http://codepad.org/OlzQax1c.

edited Jul 10, 2011 at 17:40

answered Jul 10, 2011 at 17:33

Francois Deschenes

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4 Comments

coreyward Over a year ago

This is still wrong. His regex will remove spaces, but he's missing the / delimiters.

Francois Deschenes Over a year ago

@coreyward - You're absolutely correct. I've corrected my answer and added the i modifier too. Thanks!

Francois Deschenes Over a year ago

@Alex coady - It does. I misunderstood your question but copy the line above and try it again.

Alex Over a year ago

Cheers @francois - I can't accept yours as the right answer for another 6 minutes though...

Paul.s · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-10 17:41:09Z

2

How about

$this->permalink = preg_replace('/\W/i', '-', $this->permalink);

\W is any non-word character (letter, number, underscore)

answered Jul 10, 2011 at 17:41

Paul.s

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