ltrim()
ltrim() — Strip whitespace (or other characters) from the beginning of a string.
Built-in function of PHP 8.5. The manual lists it as available in PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8. This page is the reference card: signature, parameters and return value, plus the changelog and the example the manual provides.
Signature
ltrim(string $string, string $characters = " \n\r\t\v\x00"): string
Parameters
| Parameter | Type | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| $string | string | The input string. |
| $characters | string | Optionally, the stripped characters can also be specified using the characters parameter. Simply list all characters that need to be stripped. With .. it is possible to specify an incrementing range of characters. |
Return value
This function returns a string with whitespace stripped from the beginning of string.
Example
A runnable snippet:
$text = "\t\tThese are a few words :) ... "; $binary = "\x09Example string\x0A"; $hello = "Hello World"; var_dump($text, $binary, $hello); print "\n"; $trimmed = ltrim($text); var_dump($trimmed); $trimmed = ltrim($text, " \t."); var_dump($trimmed); $trimmed = ltrim($hello, "Hdle"); var_dump($trimmed); // trim the ASCII control characters at the beginning of $binary // (from 0 to 31 inclusive) $clean = ltrim($binary, "\x00..\x1F"); var_dump($clean);
Output:
string(32) " These are a few words :) ... " string(16) " Example string " string(11) "Hello World" string(30) "These are a few words :) ... " string(30) "These are a few words :) ... " string(7) "o World" string(15) "Example string "
See also
All PHP 8.5 built-in functions
Reference card built from the PHP manual page ltrim() (PHP documentation, CC BY 3.0). The page is generated from the manual, so the wording of the parameter and return value text follows php.net.