How to Remove Special Character from String in PHP?

We are given a string and the task is to remove special characters from string str in PHP.

Below are the approaches to remove special characters from string in PHP:

Using str_replace() Method

The str_replace() method is used to remove all the special characters from the given string str by replacing these characters with the white space (" ").

Syntax:

str_replace( $searchVal, $replaceVal, $subjectVal, $count )

Example: This example illustrates the use of the str_replace() function to remove the special characters from the string.

<?php
  // PHP program to Remove 
  // Special Character From String

  // Function to remove the special 
  function RemoveSpecialChar($str) {

      // Using str_replace() function 
      // to replace the word 
      $res = str_replace( array( '\'', '"',
      ',' , ';', '<', '>' ), ' ', $str);

      // Returning the result 
      return $res;
      }

  // Given string
  $str = "Example,to remove<the>Special'Char;"; 

  // Function calling
  $str1 = RemoveSpecialChar($str); 

  // Printing the result
  echo $str1; 
?>

Output:

Example to remove the Special Char

Using str_ireplace() Method

The str_ireplace() method is used to remove all the special characters from the given string str by replacing these characters with the white space (" "). The difference between str_replace and str_ireplace is that str_ireplace is case-insensitive.

Syntax:

str_ireplace( $searchVal, $replaceVal, $subjectVal, $count )

Example: This example illustrates the use of the str_ireplace() method to remove all the special characters from the string.

<?php
  // PHP program to Remove 
  // Special Character From String

  // Function to remove the special 
  function RemoveSpecialChar($str){

      // Using str_ireplace() function 
      // to replace the word 
      $res = str_ireplace( array( '\'', '"',
      ',' , ';', '<', '>' ), ' ', $str);

      // returning the result 
      return $res;
      }

  // Given string
  $str = "Example,to remove<the>Special'Char;"; 

  // Function calling
  $str1 = RemoveSpecialChar($str); 

  // Printing the result
  echo $str1; 
?>

Output:

Example to remove the Special Char

Using preg_replace() Method

The preg_replace() method is used to perform a regular expression for search and replace the content.

Syntax:

preg_replace( $pattern, $replacement, $subject, $limit, $count )

Example: This example illustrates the use of the preg_replace() method where the particular or all the matched pattern found in the input string will be replaced with the substring or white space.

<?php
  function RemoveSpecialChar($str){

      $res = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9_ -]/s',' ',$str);
      return $res;
  }
  $str = "Example,to remove<the>Special'Char;"; 
  $str1 = RemoveSpecialChar($str); 
  echo $str1; 
?>

Output:

Example to remove the Special Char