PHP 8.3.4 Released!

rtrim

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

rtrimStrip whitespace (or other characters) from the end of a string

Description

rtrim(string $string, string $characters = " \n\r\t\v\x00"): string

This function returns a string with whitespace (or other characters) stripped from the end of string.

Without the second parameter, rtrim() will strip these characters:

  • " " (ASCII 32 (0x20)), an ordinary space.
  • "\t" (ASCII 9 (0x09)), a tab.
  • "\n" (ASCII 10 (0x0A)), a new line (line feed).
  • "\r" (ASCII 13 (0x0D)), a carriage return.
  • "\0" (ASCII 0 (0x00)), the NULL-byte.
  • "\v" (ASCII 11 (0x0B)), a vertical tab.

Parameters

string

The input string.

characters

You can also specify the characters you want to strip, by means of the characters parameter. Simply list all characters that you want to be stripped. With .. you can specify a range of characters.

Return Values

Returns the modified string.

Examples

Example #1 Usage example of rtrim()

<?php

$text
= "\t\tThese are a few words :) ... ";
$binary = "\x09Example string\x0A";
$hello = "Hello World";
var_dump($text, $binary, $hello);

print
"\n";

$trimmed = rtrim($text);
var_dump($trimmed);

$trimmed = rtrim($text, " \t.");
var_dump($trimmed);

$trimmed = rtrim($hello, "Hdle");
var_dump($trimmed);

// trim the ASCII control characters at the end of $binary
// (from 0 to 31 inclusive)
$clean = rtrim($binary, "\x00..\x1F");
var_dump($clean);

?>

The above example will output:

string(32) "        These are a few words :) ...  "
string(16) "    Example string
"
string(11) "Hello World"

string(30) "        These are a few words :) ..."
string(26) "        These are a few words :)"
string(9) "Hello Wor"
string(15) "    Example string"

See Also

  • trim() - Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning and end of a string
  • ltrim() - Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning of a string

add a note

User Contributed Notes 14 notes

up
42
pinkgothic at gmail dot com
14 years ago
I have an obsessive love for php's array functions given how extremely easy they've made complex string handling for me in various situations... so, have another string-rtrim() variant:

<?php

function strrtrim($message, $strip) {
// break message apart by strip string
$lines = explode($strip, $message);
$last = '';
// pop off empty strings at the end
do {
$last = array_pop($lines);
} while (empty(
$last) && (count($lines)));
// re-assemble what remains
return implode($strip, array_merge($lines, array($last)));
}

?>

Astonishingly, something I didn't expect, but: It completely compares to harmor's rstrtrim below, execution time wise. o_o Whee!
up
30
gbelanger at exosecurity dot com
18 years ago
True, the Perl chomp() will only trim newline characters. There is, however, the Perl chop() function which is pretty much identical to the PHP rtrim()

---

Here's a quick way to recursively trim every element of an array, useful after the file() function :

<?php
# Reads /etc/passwd file an trims newlines on each entry
$aFileContent = file("/etc/passwd");
foreach (
$aFileContent as $sKey => $sValue) {
$aFileContent[$sKey] = rtrim($sValue);
}

print_r($aFileContent);
?>
up
25
todd at magnifisites dot com
20 years ago
This shows how rtrim works when using the optional charlist parameter:
rtrim reads a character, one at a time, from the optional charlist parameter and compares it to the end of the str string. If the characters match, it trims it off and starts over again, looking at the "new" last character in the str string and compares it to the first character in the charlist again. If the characters do not match, it moves to the next character in the charlist parameter comparing once again. It continues until the charlist parameter has been completely processed, one at a time, and the str string no longer contains any matches. The newly "rtrimmed" string is returned.
<?php
// Example 1:
rtrim('This is a short short sentence', 'short sentence');
// returns 'This is a'
// If you were expecting the result to be 'This is a short ',
// then you're wrong; the exact string, 'short sentence',
// isn't matched. Remember, character-by-character comparison!
// Example 2:
rtrim('This is a short short sentence', 'cents');
// returns 'This is a short short '
?>
up
15
pinkgothic at gmail dot com
10 years ago
On the recurring subject of string-stripping instead of character-stripping rtrim() implementations... the simplest (with a caveat) is probably the basename() function. It has a second parameter that functions as a right-trim using whole strings:

<?php

echo basename('MooFoo', 'Foo');

?>

...outputs 'Moo'.

Since it also strips anything that looks like a directory, it's not quite identical with hacking a string off the end:

<?php

echo basename('Zoo/MooFoo', 'Foo');

?>

...still outputs 'Moo'.

But sometimes it gets the job done.
up
20
Unimagined at UnaimaginedDesigns dot Com
19 years ago
I needed a way to trim all white space and then a few chosen strings from the end of a string. So I wrote this class to reuse when stuff needs to be trimmed.

<?php

class cleaner {

function
cleaner ($cuts,$pinfo) {
$ucut = "0";
$lcut = "0";
while (
$cuts[$ucut]) {
$lcut++;
$ucut++;
}
$lcut = $lcut - 1;
$ucut = "0";
$rcut = "0";
$wiy = "start";

while (
$wiy) {

if (
$so) {
$ucut = "0";
$rcut = "0";
unset(
$so);
}

if (!
$cuts[$ucut]) {
$so = "restart";
} else {
$pinfo = rtrim($pinfo);
$bpinfol = strlen($pinfo);
$tcut = $cuts[$ucut];
$pinfo = rtrim($pinfo,"$tcut");
$pinfol = strlen($pinfo);

if (
$bpinfol == $pinfol) {
$rcut++;
if (
$rcut == $lcut) {
unset(
$wiy);
}
$ucut++;
} else {
$so = "restart";
}
}
}

$this->cleaner = $pinfo;
}

}

$pinfo = "Well... I'm really bored...<br /><br>&nbsp; \n\t&nbsp;<br><br /><br>&nbsp; \r\r&nbsp;<br>\r<br /><br>\r&nbsp; &nbsp;\n<br> <br />\t";

$cuts = array('\n','\r','\t',' ',' ','&nbsp;','<br />','<br>','<br/>');

$pinfo = new cleaner($cuts,$pinfo);
$pinfo = $pinfo->cleaner;

print
$pinfo;

?>

That class will take any string that you put in the $cust array and remove it from the end of the $pinfo string. It's useful for cleaning up comments, articles, or mail that users post to your site, making it so there's no extra blank space or blank lines.
up
5
harmor
15 years ago
I'm sure there's a better way to strip strings from the end of strings.

<?php
/**
* Strip a string from the end of a string
*
* @param string $str the input string
* @param string $remove OPTIONAL string to remove
*
* @return string the modified string
*/
function rstrtrim($str, $remove=null)
{
$str = (string)$str;
$remove = (string)$remove;

if(empty(
$remove))
{
return
rtrim($str);
}

$len = strlen($remove);
$offset = strlen($str)-$len;
while(
$offset > 0 && $offset == strpos($str, $remove, $offset))
{
$str = substr($str, 0, $offset);
$offset = strlen($str)-$len;
}

return
rtrim($str);

}
//End of function rstrtrim($str, $remove=null)

echo rstrtrim('Hello World!!!', '!') .'<br />'; //"Hello World"
echo rstrtrim('Hello World!!!', '!!') .'<br />'; //"Hello World!"
echo rstrtrim('Hello World!!!', '!!!') .'<br />'; //"Hello World"
echo rstrtrim('Hello World!!!', '!!!!').'<br />'; //"Hello World!!!"
?>
up
-3
HW
20 years ago
<?php
$text
= "This string contains some unwanted characters on the end.";
$text1 = rtrim($text, 'a..z');
$text1 = rtrim($text1, '.');
echo
$text1; // only the '.' is trimmed.
$text2 = rtrim($text, 'a..z.');
echo
$text2; // The whole last word is trimmed.
?>
up
-9
krzysiek dot 333 at gmail dot com
11 years ago
function read_more($in,$len=160){
if(strlen($in)>$len){
return preg_replace('/[\s\.,][^\s\.,]*$/u', '', substr($in, 0, $len)).'...';
}else{
return $in;
}
}

echo read_mode("Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Proin nibh augue, suscipit a, scelerisque sed, lacinia in, mi. Cras vel lorem. Etiam pellentesque aliquet tellus. Phasellus pharetra nulla ac diam. Quisque semper justo at risus. Donec venenatis, turpis vel hendrerit interdum, dui ligula ultricies purus, sed posuere libero dui id orci.");
/* Output:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Proin nibh augue, suscipit a, scelerisque sed, lacinia in, mi. Cras vel lorem. Etiam pellentesque...*/
up
-16
YAS
17 years ago
To remove an unwanted character - example "." - if exist or not.

The example above doesn't include the case where there is no "."
If there is not "." at the example above the last word will be deleted.

Have fun with this code.

<?php
$text
= "This string contains. some unwanted characters on the end .";
$text = trim($text);
$last = $text{strlen($text)-1};
if (!
strcmp($last,"."))
{
$text = rtrim($text, 'a..z');
$text = rtrim($text, '.');
}
?>
up
-11
andreipop2005 at gmail dot com
8 years ago
Trim limit would be really helpfull. I made a little helper function to do a rtrim with a limited number of replaces:

<?php
function rtrim_limit($str, $delim, $count = 0)
{
if (
$count == 0) return rtrim($str, $delim);

$l = strlen($delim);
$k = 0;

while (
substr($str, -$l) == $delim && ($count == 0 || ($count > 0 && $k++ < $count))) {
$str = substr($str, 0, strlen($str) - $l);
}

return
$str;
}
?>
up
-17
Anonymous
10 years ago
To ltrim or rtrim a dot it have to be escaped ltrim('.1252', '\.')
up
-27
NBS Studio
14 years ago
The simplest way to strip a newline form a text file is ltrim();

trim or explode or split ("\n" or "\r\n") doesn't work in all cases, so give ltrim(); a try instead.
up
-29
info at nbs-studio dot com
14 years ago
The simplest way to strip a newline form a text file is ltrim();

trim or explode or split ("\n" or "\r\n") doesn't work in all cases, so give ltrim(); a try instead.
up
-38
pLIMP
11 years ago
Function similar to rtrim only this will truncate the string at the 1st occurence of any character from $charlist

<?php

function rstrip($string, $charlist = "\t ") {
// removes everything from first occurence of char in charlist to end of string

$charlist = str_split($charlist);
$pos = strlen($string);

foreach (
$charlist as $char) {
$pos = min(strpos($string, $char), $pos);
}

$string_stripped = substr($string, 0, $pos);

return
$string_stripped;
}

?>
To Top