PHP : writing a simple removeEmoji function

Question

I'm looking for a simple function that would remove Emoji characters from instagram comments. What I've tried for now (with a lot of code from examples I found on SO & other websites) :

// PHP class
public static function removeEmoji($string)
{
    // split the string into UTF8 char array
    // for loop inside char array
        // if char is emoji, remove it
    // endfor
    // return newstring
}

Any help would be appreciated

Answer 1

Community note: removing emojis isn't necessary in 2020 and beyond. Every DBMS or online service already supports them. Regarding MySQL, just make sure utf8mb4 encoding is used for both tables and connection. See more.

I think the preg_replace function is the simpliest solution.

As EaterOfCode suggests, I read the wiki page and coded new regex since none of SO (or other websites) answers seemed to work for Instagram photo captions (API returning format) . Note: /u identifier is mandatory to match \x unicode chars.

public static function removeEmoji($text) {

    $clean_text = "";
    
    // Match Emoticons
    $regexEmoticons = '/[\x{1F600}-\x{1F64F}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexEmoticons, '', $text);
    
    // Match Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs
    $regexSymbols = '/[\x{1F300}-\x{1F5FF}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexSymbols, '', $clean_text);

    // Match Transport And Map Symbols
    $regexTransport = '/[\x{1F680}-\x{1F6FF}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexTransport, '', $clean_text);

    // Match Miscellaneous Symbols
    $regexMisc = '/[\x{2600}-\x{26FF}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexMisc, '', $clean_text);

    // Match Dingbats
    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{2700}-\x{27BF}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    return $clean_text;
}

The function does not remove all emojis since there are many more, but you get the point.

Please refer to unicode.org - full emoji list (thanks Epoc)