How to remove brackets from string in php?

Question

I have the following string and would like to use str_replace or preg_replace to remove the brackets but am unsure how. I have been able to remove the opening brackets using str_replace but can't remove the closing brackets.

This is the sting:

$coords = '(51.50972493425563, -0.1323877295303646)';

I have tried:

<?php echo str_replace('(','',$coords); ?>

which removed the opening brackets but am now under the impression that I need preg_replace to remove both.

How does one go about this?

Help appreciated

Sgraffito

Answer 1

Try with:

str_replace(array( '(', ')' ), '', $coords);

Peugia

Just a note that this might have unintended consequences. For example, when $coords = "(testing (it) out)" the result is "testing it out" instead of "testing (it) out"; A safer way would probably be to use trim() as suggested by Sarfraz. The str_replace works for this example only because there are not multiple parentheses. – Scoreboard

Answer 2

If brackets always come on beginging and end, you can use trim easily:

$coords = trim($coords, '()');

Result:

51.50972493425563, -0.1323877295303646

Joktan

This is remove only ) brackets. – Sloppy

Answer 3

echo str_replace(
     array('(',')'), array('',''), 
     $coords);

or just do str_replace twice....

echo str_replace(')', '', str_replace('(','',$coords));

Annabelannabela

Answer 4

i think you need to write your coords here as a string else you get syntax error ;). Anyway, this is the solution i think.

$coords = "(51.50972493425563, -0.1323877295303646)";

$aReplace = array('(', ')');
$coordsReplaced = str_replace($aReplace , '', $coords);

Greets, Stefan

Rosas

Answer 5

it is easier than you think, str_replace can have an array as first parameter

 <?php echo str_replace(array('(',')'),'',$coords); ?>

Stillhunt

Answer 6

Here's the accepted answer in more modern PHP syntax:

$string = str_replace(["(", ")"], "", $string);

Bear in mind that - as noted by Kelt in a comment on the accepted answer - this will strip all brackets from a string, so if you wanted to strip only the outer brackets of a string like the OP did, your best bet is:

$string = trim($string, '()');

Einberger