How can i remove the key which contain the value white space in PHP, Laravel?

public function store(Request $request)
{  

    $article = Article::create($request->only(['content']));

    $categories = explode(",",$request->get('categories'));
    $category_ids =[];


    foreach ($categories as $category) {
        $category_db = Category::where('name', trim($category))->firstOrCreate(['name'=> trim($category)]);
        $category_ids [] = $category_db->id;
    }

    $article->category()->attach($category_ids);
    return response("Successfully Added to Database");
}

In the end there is no comma and no issue and in the database everything is fine

Now problem is that when i put a comma in the end there is a cell created in the database with whitespace

I know why this happening. The last key of the exploded array containing value is whitespace. But i want to omit or leave that empty key. How can i do that?

Answer

You should use array_filter() which will remove all empty keys from the array. So here is the code you should use:

$categories = array_filter(explode(",",$request->get('categories')));