PHP need to trim all the $_POST variables

Question

Need you help in an unusal situation. I need to trim all the $_POST variables.

Is there any way I can do it at a single shot i.e., using a single function?

I

Answer 1

You can also use this code I wrote in case you want to sanitize a string OR an array with one function:

function sanitize ($value) {
    // sanitize array or string values
    if (is_array($value)) {
        array_walk_recursive($value, 'sanitize_value');
    }
    else {
        sanitize_value($value);
    }

    return $value;
}

function sanitize_value (&$value) {
    $value = trim(htmlspecialchars($value));
}

Simply use it like this:

$post_sanitized = sanitize($_POST);
$apple_sanitized = sanitize('apple');

Answer 2

array_walk($_POST, 'trim') (note that this and the idea might be broken as input name=foo[bar] is translated into an array)

Edit: the above is not correct. Try $_POST = array_map('trim', $_POST);.

Answer 3

Simply

  $_POST = array_map("trim", $_POST);

But if $_POST members (even if 1 of them) is again an array itself, then use recursive version:

    function array_map_deep( $value, $callback ) 
    {
        if ( is_array( $value ) ) {
            foreach ( $value as $index => $item ) {
                    $value[ $index ] = array_map_deep( $item, $callback );
            }
        } elseif ( is_object( $value ) ) {
            $object_vars = get_object_vars( $value );
            foreach ( $object_vars as $property_name => $property_value ) {
                    $value->$property_name = array_map_deep( $property_value, $callback );
            }
        } else {
            $value = call_user_func( $callback, $value );
        }
        return $value;
    }

Answer 4

The other answers did not work well with associative arrays. This recursive functions will trim all values inside a $_POST array all levels down.

// Trim all values of associative array
function trim_associative_array(&$input_array) {
    if (is_array($input_array)) {
        foreach ($input_array as $key => &$val) {
            if (is_array($val)) {
                trim_associative_array($val);
            } else {
                $input_array[$key] = trim($val);
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

Here's a one-liner that will also work either on single values or recursively on arrays:

$_POST = filter_var($_POST, \FILTER_CALLBACK, ['options' => 'trim']);

Answer 6

I think it's better to use anonymous functions :

array_walk($_POST, function(& $value){
    $value = trim($value);
});