I have a php script which returns 0.28. This is then fetched to HTML using AJAX, and inserted into a span. The problem is, it is inserted with 5 spaces and what appears to be a newline. jQuery then sees that as a change and updates the existing span with the new value when there is no change. It appears that the whitespace does not e from the php. I have tried:

• to trim() and ltrim() the php to get rid of whitespace
• remove php exit tag
• white-space-collapsing: discard; in the css and using the !important tag (this is not being read and the chrome yellow alert is on it)
• trimming the response with jquery
• using html notes to cut the space

Dumping the php variable:

string(4) "0.28"

This is how my browser returns it

   <span id="response1" style="display: inline;">*5spaceshere*    
   0.28</span>

This is my script

$(function () {
    function update() {
        $.ajax({
            type: "GET",
            url: "balancefetch.php",
            dataType: "html",
            success: function (response) {
                var trimmedResponse = $.trim(response)
                if (trimmedResponse != $("#response1").html()) {
                    $("#response1").fadeOut(200, function () {
                        $("#response1").html(response);
                        $("#response1").fadeIn();
                    });
                } else {}
            }

        });
    }
    setInterval(update, 5000);
    update();
});

And my html

<div id="balance-div"><!--
--><p class="balance">Balance<span id="response1">Loading...</span></p><!--
--></div>

php

$balance = ltrim($balance);
echo $balance;

$balance holds 0.26

I have a php script which returns 0.28. This is then fetched to HTML using AJAX, and inserted into a span. The problem is, it is inserted with 5 spaces and what appears to be a newline. jQuery then sees that as a change and updates the existing span with the new value when there is no change. It appears that the whitespace does not e from the php. I have tried:

• to trim() and ltrim() the php to get rid of whitespace
• remove php exit tag
• white-space-collapsing: discard; in the css and using the !important tag (this is not being read and the chrome yellow alert is on it)
• trimming the response with jquery
• using html notes to cut the space

Dumping the php variable:

string(4) "0.28"

This is how my browser returns it

   <span id="response1" style="display: inline;">*5spaceshere*    
   0.28</span>

This is my script

$(function () {
    function update() {
        $.ajax({
            type: "GET",
            url: "balancefetch.php",
            dataType: "html",
            success: function (response) {
                var trimmedResponse = $.trim(response)
                if (trimmedResponse != $("#response1").html()) {
                    $("#response1").fadeOut(200, function () {
                        $("#response1").html(response);
                        $("#response1").fadeIn();
                    });
                } else {}
            }

        });
    }
    setInterval(update, 5000);
    update();
});

And my html

<div id="balance-div"><!--
--><p class="balance">Balance<span id="response1">Loading...</span></p><!--
--></div>

php

$balance = ltrim($balance);
echo $balance;

$balance holds 0.26

• javascript
• php
• jquery
• html

• 1 Please show your PHP. – nnnnnn Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 9:45
• I'm not allowed to show all of it, but what i can i will – Semger Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 9:46
• 2 Whitespace is generally ignored in html, why is this an issue? – Steve Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 9:48
• 2 I think it would be better to find 'why' it inserts 5 whitespaces there. I know you can't show your code, but maybe you should try to debug like var_dump( $balance ); and look if there are whitespaces, if yes, go steps before and look what actually adds the whitespaces there. Btw. why you can't show your code? I mean you could hide important links or change their names.. it's not like we all never sawn PHP code or know how to manage it by ourselfs, even if not, your code won't help at all to "steal" something. – Cagatay Ulubay Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 9:56
• 1 So could it be possible that they are whitespaces inside your script? Maybe before your <?php Opening Tag or somewhere between the lines? I remember when <?php {whitespaces} session_start(); would occur a header already sent error, because there are white spaces before or something like ?> {whitespaces} inside a script that you use and this also counts as white space, so some people would tend to say that you shouldn't use the PHP-Close Tag if there is nothing else there anymore, because PHP won't fail doing that and this could prevent such failures – Cagatay Ulubay Commented Jun 18, 2015 at 10:01

3 Answers 3

So after testing and going trough several methods finding where the problem is, the source for this problem was found.

The main part why not using technics like trim or a RegEx to remove whitespaces is, because that would fix the current problem, but not the source, so this would be just a bad workaround, so it was important to find the source.

The source problem was inside the configuration file, which had some whitespaces inside it and after including it inside the script, which is loaded via AJAX, the whitespaces also were included.

Solution: Remove the whitespaces of the config file and/or just remove the ?> PHP-Ending Tag.

For further debuging steps, look into the ment section of the question.

Use ob_clean() which clears buffer that had unwanted newline

Put ob_get_clean(); Before echo/json reponse on the server-side

Expl:

ob_get_clean();
echo "Text from Ajax reponse";