//Remove all non alpha numeric characters
$my_string = preg_replace("/[^a-zA-Z0-9\s]/", "", $my_string); //Remove spaces
$my_string = trim(str_replace(' ','',$my_string)); //Remove spacesFeel free to comment if you can add help to this page or point out issues and solutions you have found. I do not provide support on this site, if you need help with a problem head over to stack overflow.