regex/php: how can I convert 2+ dashes to singles and remove all dashes at the beginning and end of a string?

Question

example: -this--is---a-test--

what I want: this-is-a-test

thanks for any answers! :)

Answer 1

I would use a combination of preg_replace and trim:

trim(preg_replace('/-+/', '-', $str), '-')

The preg_replace call removes multiple dashes and trim removes the leading and trailing dashes.