PHP ltrim() Function: Removing Leading Characters from a String

The ltrim() function removes whitespace characters (or other specified characters) from the beginning of a string in PHP.

Parameters str: The input string. character_mask (optional): A list of characters to strip; ranges can be specified with ...

Return value

The function returns the input string with the leftmost characters removed. If character_mask is omitted, the default characters removed are:

Space (ASCII 32)

Tab (ASCII 9)

Newline (ASCII 10)

Carriage return (ASCII 13)

NULL byte (ASCII 0)

Vertical tab (ASCII 11)

Example usage

<?php
$text = "\t\tThese are a few words :) ...  ";
$binary = "\x09Example string\x0A";
$hello = "Hello World";
var_dump($text, $binary, $hello);
$trimmed = ltrim($text);
var_dump($trimmed);
$trimmed = ltrim($text, " \t.");
var_dump($trimmed);
$clean = ltrim($binary, "\x00..\x1F");
var_dump($clean);
?>

The above script demonstrates:

Removing default whitespace from $text.

Specifying a custom mask (space, tab, period) to trim additional characters.

Removing ASCII control characters (0–31) from $binary.

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
"