Strip out non-alpha numeric

[rfontaine]

Hi,

I am looking for a php function that will efficiently strip from a phrase all characters that are not alpha or numeric:

keep only: a-z A-Z and 0-9

What might you recommend trying, other than the usual "RTFM"?

Thank you in advance

[rfontaine]

oh, also spaces are allowed

[adb64]

Do a preg_replace [nl2.php.net] of "/[^a-zA-Z0-9 ]/" with an empty string "".
Probably the pattern can be optimised, but this one should work for you.