Remove spaces from $contactname php

I am trying to remove the spaces from $contactname. Right now if I view the code below I get:

First Last

If I replace $_SESSION['name'] with 'first last' I get:

firstlast

Any ideas on why this is only working when it is a static field?

$contactname=$_SESSION['name'];开发者_如何学Python
$contactname = preg_replace('/( *)/', '', $contactname);
echo $contactname."\n";

Updated Code with same problem:

$contactname=$_SESSION['name'];
$contactname = str_replace(' ', '', $contactname);
echo $contactname."\n";

Don't use preg_replace to remove spaces. Use:

str_replace(' ', '', $contactname);

It's faster.

Your regex should use the character class for whitespace, \s:

$contactname = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $contactname);

In order to replace anything like a space that might be in $_SESSION, or use str_replace if it is guaranteed to only be spaces (because it doesn't need the regex engine and goes faster):

$contactname = str_replace(' ', '', $contactname);