Is it better to use regular expressions or string functions to filter out unwanted characters in PHP?

When filtering out unwanted characters in PHP, it is generally better to use regular expressions as they offer more flexibility and power in pattern matching compared to string functions. Regular expressions allow you to define specific patterns of characters to match and replace, making it easier to handle complex filtering requirements. 

// Using regular expressions to filter out unwanted characters
$string = "Hello, 123! How are you?";
$filteredString = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s]/', '', $string);
echo $filteredString;

Keywords

regular expressions string functions filter unwanted characters PHP

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