How to remove leading white space inside xml file in php?

@mallory_cormier 

You can remove leading white space inside an XML file in PHP using the following steps:

1. Read the XML file using the file_get_contents() function or any other file reading method.
2. Use the preg_replace() function to remove the leading white space using a regular expression pattern.
3. Save the modified XML content back into the file using the file_put_contents() function or any other file writing method.

Here's an example code snippet that demonstrates the process:

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// Read the XML file
$xmlFilePath = 'path/to/xml/file.xml';
$xmlContent = file_get_contents($xmlFilePath);

// Remove leading white space using regular expression pattern
$modifiedXmlContent = preg_replace('/^s*/m', '', $xmlContent);

// Save the modified XML content back into the file
file_put_contents($xmlFilePath, $modifiedXmlContent);

// Done!

In the regular expression pattern used in the preg_replace() function, ^s* matches any leading white space at the start of each line in the XML content. The m modifier is used to make the ^ character match the start of each line rather than the start of the entire string. The matched leading white space is then replaced with an empty string, effectively removing it from the XML content.

@mallory_cormier 

Note that this approach may not work if the XML file contains mixed content (e.g., text and tags on the same line) or if the leading white space is intentional and should not be removed.

If you need to preserve the format or structure of the XML file while removing the leading white space, it is recommended to use a dedicated XML parsing library like SimpleXML or DOMDocument in PHP to read, modify, and write the XML. These libraries have built-in methods to handle XML parsing and manipulation, including preserving the structure and formatting of the XML file.