Spaces Changed to Whitespace

Question

The code below produces an unexpected result:

$row = 'one        //There are spaces here
two  ';
$row = explode(PHP_EOL,$row);
$row = $row[0];
preg_match('/( +)$/',$row,$matches);

When using var_dump($matches);, the output is:

array(0) {
}

But, it should be something like this:

array(2) {
    [0]=>string(8) "        "
    [1]=>string(8) "        "
}

• Replacing PHP_EOL with "\n" makes no difference.

• Using preg_match('/(\s+)$/',$row,$matches); produces the expected result:

  array(2) {
      [0]=>string(8) "        "
      [1]=>string(8) "        "
  }
  

• The expected also happens when using:

  $row = 'one        ';
  preg_match('/( +)$/',$row,$matches);
  

But, obviously, these both have their own reasons to not be used.

My question is: Why does PHP not recognize the spaces as spaces but only as whitespace?

Example: http://sandbox.onlinephpfunctions.com/code/a6f3ea8b422671d86a37b765986395b1dd6f94e8

Answer 1

You need to use "\n\r" instead of PHP_EOL or space

$row = explode("\n\r",$row);
$row = $row[0];
preg_match('/( +)$/',$row,$matches);

Now as you see you can use space in pattern for regExp