Strip String of non letters/number

[manipura]

is there a function that will convert a string to alphanumeric by stripping anything that isn't a number or letter?

What would also be great is if you could leave spaces in.

So

$string = "b'lah blah! bl&ah bl:ah (blah)";

after going through the function
it would output

"blah blah blah blah blah"

[DelvarWorld]

There is probably a faster way to answer your question...

[manipura]

awesome!! thanks

[wonshikee]

maybe....

$str = preg_replace('/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/','',$str); 

Lemme try to find out what space is..