Collapse Consecutive Duplicate Characters with Str::deduplicate()

Use Str::deduplicate() to collapse repeated consecutive spaces, slashes, or characters into a single instance.

When sanitizing user input, formatting URI paths, or cleaning multi-line text, users frequently enter repeated spaces or duplicate slashes (e.g. path//to///resource or hello world).

Str::deduplicate() replaces consecutive instances of a character with a single instance.

Cleaning Consecutive Spaces

use Illuminate\Support\Str;

$text = "This   has   too    many   spaces.";

echo Str::deduplicate($text);
// Output: "This has too many spaces."

Cleaning Duplicate URL Slashes

Pass the character to deduplicate as the second argument:

$path = "api///v1//users////profile";

echo Str::deduplicate($path, '/');
// Output: "api/v1/users/profile"

Summary

• Collapses repeated consecutive characters into a single character.
• Defaults to space characters if no second argument is provided.
• Available as a static method and via str()->deduplicate().