'PHP : writing a simple removeEmoji function

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

Solution 1:^[1]

As apple continues to add emojis to new versions of ios, i will be updating and maintaining this answer.

This answer has been updated for ios 12.1. If you have problems, then please check the edit history for previous versions of this answer (having multiple regex in this answer exceeds SO's max post body length)

Beta Version for ios 12.1 (Nov, 2018)

public static function removeEmoji($string)
    return preg_replace('/[\x{1F3F4}](?:\x{E0067}\x{E0062}\x{E0077}\x{E006C}\x{E0073}\x{E007F})|[\x{1F3F4}](?:\x{E0067}\x{E0062}\x{E0073}\x{E0063}\x{E0074}\x{E007F})|[\x{1F3F4}](?:\x{E0067}\x{E0062}\x{E0065}\x{E006E}\x{E0067}\x{E007F})|[\x{1F3F4}](?:\x{200D}\x{2620}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F3F3}](?:\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F308})|[\x{0023}\x{002A}\x{0030}\x{0031}\x{0032}\x{0033}\x{0034}\x{0035}\x{0036}\x{0037}\x{0038}\x{0039}](?:\x{FE0F}\x{20E3})|[\x{1F415}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9BA})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F466}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F468}\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F468}\x{200D}\x{1F466}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F468}\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F468}\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F468}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F469}\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F469}\x{200D}\x{1F466}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F469}\x{200D}\x{1F467}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F469}\x{200D}\x{1F467})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F469}\x{200D}\x{1F466})|[\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{2764}\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F469})|[\x{1F469}\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{2764}\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F468})|[\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{2764}\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F48B}\x{200D}\x{1F469})|[\x{1F469}\x{1F468}](?:\x{200D}\x{2764}\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F48B}\x{200D}\x{1F468})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9BD})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9BC})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9AF})|[\x{1F575}\x{1F3CC}\x{26F9}\x{1F3CB}](?:\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{2640}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F575}\x{1F3CC}\x{26F9}\x{1F3CB}](?:\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{2642}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F692})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F680})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{2708}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F3A8})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F3A4})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F4BB})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F52C})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F4BC})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F3ED})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F527})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F373})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F33E})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{2696}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F3EB})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F393})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{2695}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F471}\x{1F64D}\x{1F64E}\x{1F645}\x{1F646}\x{1F481}\x{1F64B}\x{1F9CF}\x{1F647}\x{1F926}\x{1F937}\x{1F46E}\x{1F482}\x{1F477}\x{1F473}\x{1F9B8}\x{1F9B9}\x{1F9D9}\x{1F9DA}\x{1F9DB}\x{1F9DC}\x{1F9DD}\x{1F9DE}\x{1F9DF}\x{1F486}\x{1F487}\x{1F6B6}\x{1F9CD}\x{1F9CE}\x{1F3C3}\x{1F46F}\x{1F9D6}\x{1F9D7}\x{1F3C4}\x{1F6A3}\x{1F3CA}\x{1F6B4}\x{1F6B5}\x{1F938}\x{1F93C}\x{1F93D}\x{1F93E}\x{1F939}\x{1F9D8}](?:\x{200D}\x{2640}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9B2})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9B3})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9B1})|[\x{1F468}\x{1F469}](?:\x{200D}\x{1F9B0})|[\x{1F471}\x{1F64D}\x{1F64E}\x{1F645}\x{1F646}\x{1F481}\x{1F64B}\x{1F9CF}\x{1F647}\x{1F926}\x{1F937}\x{1F46E}\x{1F482}\x{1F477}\x{1F473}\x{1F9B8}\x{1F9B9}\x{1F9D9}\x{1F9DA}\x{1F9DB}\x{1F9DC}\x{1F9DD}\x{1F9DE}\x{1F9DF}\x{1F486}\x{1F487}\x{1F6B6}\x{1F9CD}\x{1F9CE}\x{1F3C3}\x{1F46F}\x{1F9D6}\x{1F9D7}\x{1F3C4}\x{1F6A3}\x{1F3CA}\x{1F6B4}\x{1F6B5}\x{1F938}\x{1F93C}\x{1F93D}\x{1F93E}\x{1F939}\x{1F9D8}](?:\x{200D}\x{2642}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F441}](?:\x{FE0F}\x{200D}\x{1F5E8}\x{FE0F})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FA}](?:\x{1F1FF})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1FA}](?:\x{1F1FE})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F8}](?:\x{1F1FD})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F7}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FF}](?:\x{1F1FC})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1FB})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F7}\x{1F1FB}](?:\x{1F1FA})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FE}](?:\x{1F1F9})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F7}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1FA}\x{1F1FC}](?:\x{1F1F8})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1F7})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F2}](?:\x{1F1F6})|[\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EF}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}](?:\x{1F1F5})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1EF}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F7}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1F4})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FA}\x{1F1FB}](?:\x{1F1F3})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1EF}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F4}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FA}\x{1F1FF}](?:\x{1F1F2})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1F1})|[\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1ED}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FD}](?:\x{1F1F0})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1EF})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EB}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1FB}](?:\x{1F1EE})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1ED})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FA}\x{1F1FB}](?:\x{1F1EC})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FC}](?:\x{1F1EB})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E9}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1EF}\x{1F1F0}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F7}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1FB}\x{1F1FE}](?:\x{1F1EA})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}](?:\x{1F1E9})|[\x{1F1E6}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EE}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FB}](?:\x{1F1E8})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F8}](?:\x{1F1E7})|[\x{1F1E7}\x{1F1E8}\x{1F1EA}\x{1F1EC}\x{1F1F1}\x{1F1F2}\x{1F1F3}\x{1F1F5}\x{1F1F6}\x{1F1F8}\x{1F1F9}\x{1F1FA}\x{1F1FB}\x{1F1FF}](?:\x{1F1E6})|[\x{00A9}\x{00AE}\x{203C}\x{2049}\x{2122}\x{2139}\x{2194}-\x{2199}\x{21A9}-\x{21AA}\x{231A}-\x{231B}\x{2328}\x{23CF}\x{23E9}-\x{23F3}\x{23F8}-\x{23FA}\x{24C2}\x{25AA}-\x{25AB}\x{25B6}\x{25C0}\x{25FB}-\x{25FE}\x{2600}-\x{2604}\x{260E}\x{2611}\x{2614}-\x{2615}\x{2618}\x{261D}\x{2620}\x{2622}-\x{2623}\x{2626}\x{262A}\x{262E}-\x{262F}\x{2638}-\x{263A}\x{2640}\x{2642}\x{2648}-\x{2653}\x{265F}-\x{2660}\x{2663}\x{2665}-\x{2666}\x{2668}\x{267B}\x{267E}-\x{267F}\x{2692}-\x{2697}\x{2699}\x{269B}-\x{269C}\x{26A0}-\x{26A1}\x{26AA}-\x{26AB}\x{26B0}-\x{26B1}\x{26BD}-\x{26BE}\x{26C4}-\x{26C5}\x{26C8}\x{26CE}-\x{26CF}\x{26D1}\x{26D3}-\x{26D4}\x{26E9}-\x{26EA}\x{26F0}-\x{26F5}\x{26F7}-\x{26FA}\x{26FD}\x{2702}\x{2705}\x{2708}-\x{270D}\x{270F}\x{2712}\x{2714}\x{2716}\x{271D}\x{2721}\x{2728}\x{2733}-\x{2734}\x{2744}\x{2747}\x{274C}\x{274E}\x{2753}-\x{2755}\x{2757}\x{2763}-\x{2764}\x{2795}-\x{2797}\x{27A1}\x{27B0}\x{27BF}\x{2934}-\x{2935}\x{2B05}-\x{2B07}\x{2B1B}-\x{2B1C}\x{2B50}\x{2B55}\x{3030}\x{303D}\x{3297}\x{3299}\x{1F004}\x{1F0CF}\x{1F170}-\x{1F171}\x{1F17E}-\x{1F17F}\x{1F18E}\x{1F191}-\x{1F19A}\x{1F201}-\x{1F202}\x{1F21A}\x{1F22F}\x{1F232}-\x{1F23A}\x{1F250}-\x{1F251}\x{1F300}-\x{1F321}\x{1F324}-\x{1F393}\x{1F396}-\x{1F397}\x{1F399}-\x{1F39B}\x{1F39E}-\x{1F3F0}\x{1F3F3}-\x{1F3F5}\x{1F3F7}-\x{1F3FA}\x{1F400}-\x{1F4FD}\x{1F4FF}-\x{1F53D}\x{1F549}-\x{1F54E}\x{1F550}-\x{1F567}\x{1F56F}-\x{1F570}\x{1F573}-\x{1F57A}\x{1F587}\x{1F58A}-\x{1F58D}\x{1F590}\x{1F595}-\x{1F596}\x{1F5A4}-\x{1F5A5}\x{1F5A8}\x{1F5B1}-\x{1F5B2}\x{1F5BC}\x{1F5C2}-\x{1F5C4}\x{1F5D1}-\x{1F5D3}\x{1F5DC}-\x{1F5DE}\x{1F5E1}\x{1F5E3}\x{1F5E8}\x{1F5EF}\x{1F5F3}\x{1F5FA}-\x{1F64F}\x{1F680}-\x{1F6C5}\x{1F6CB}-\x{1F6D2}\x{1F6D5}\x{1F6E0}-\x{1F6E5}\x{1F6E9}\x{1F6EB}-\x{1F6EC}\x{1F6F0}\x{1F6F3}-\x{1F6FA}\x{1F7E0}-\x{1F7EB}\x{1F90D}-\x{1F93A}\x{1F93C}-\x{1F945}\x{1F947}-\x{1F971}\x{1F973}-\x{1F976}\x{1F97A}-\x{1F9A2}\x{1F9A5}-\x{1F9AA}\x{1F9AE}-\x{1F9CA}\x{1F9CD}-\x{1F9FF}\x{1FA70}-\x{1FA73}\x{1FA78}-\x{1FA7A}\x{1FA80}-\x{1FA82}\x{1FA90}-\x{1FA95}]/u', '', $string);
}

Solution 2:^[2]

Updated the correct answer with more codes, just a few emojis are left.

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);

    // Match Flags
    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{1F1E6}-\x{1F1FF}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    // Others
    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{1F910}-\x{1F95E}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{1F980}-\x{1F991}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{1F9C0}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    $regexDingbats = '/[\x{1F9F9}]/u';
    $clean_text = preg_replace($regexDingbats, '', $clean_text);

    return $clean_text;
}

Solution 3:^[3]

It is also possible to remove the emojis using iconv. It's pretty similar to the solution based on mb_convert_encoding in this thread, but iconv offers the //IGNORE option, so there's no need to protect/restore the "?". The emojis are replaced with a space, so the function is replacing multiple consecutive spaces with a single one.

It only works well with texts that are Latin-9 + emoji

But:

It's about 100x faster than the best answer (as of dec. 2020),
For Latin texts, it's more reliable (the best answer leaves unwanted characters with some "Dark Skin Tone" emojis, for instance ?? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ?? ????? ?? ????? ?? ?????, or even ?),
Future emojis will also be removed.

function removeEmoji(string $text): string
{
    $text = iconv('UTF-8', 'ISO-8859-15//IGNORE', $text);
    $text = preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $text);
    return iconv('ISO-8859-15', 'UTF-8', $text);
}

Solution 4:^[4]

use below pattern to remove all of emojis

function removeEmoji($text) {
    return preg_replace('/([0-9|#][\x{20E3}])|[\x{00ae}|\x{00a9}|\x{203C}|\x{2047}|\x{2048}|\x{2049}|\x{3030}|\x{303D}|\x{2139}|\x{2122}|\x{3297}|\x{3299}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2190}-\x{21FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2300}-\x{23FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2460}-\x{24FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{25A0}-\x{25FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2600}-\x{27BF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2600}-\x{27BF}][\x{1F000}-\x{1FEFF}]?|[\x{2900}-\x{297F}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2B00}-\x{2BF0}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{1F000}-\x{1F9FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{1F000}-\x{1F9FF}][\x{1F000}-\x{1FEFF}]?/u', '', $text);
}

reference

Solution 5:^[5]

I developed a funtcion using the parser from UTF-8 for ISO-8859-1 in php ( who returns a ? character for invalid characters in conversion ).

function removeEmojis( $string ) {
    $string = str_replace( "?", "{%}", $string );
    $string  = mb_convert_encoding( $string, "ISO-8859-1", "UTF-8" );
    $string  = mb_convert_encoding( $string, "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1" );
    $string  = str_replace( array( "?", "? ", " ?" ), array(""), $string );
    $string  = str_replace( "{%}", "?", $string );
    return trim( $string );
}

Explanation:

convert the string from utf-8 to iso-8859-1
return back to utf-8 (mb_ function replace invalid characters to ''?''remove non-valid characters )
Replace ? to none
Return back the ''?'' character from the original string

Make sure you are using UTF-8 to work.

Solution 6:^[6]

While all of these approaches are valid, they are fundamentally a blocklist of characters over regex: this is hardly maintainable, and prone to error.

Emojis are actually one of various different code blocks that see large use as icons on the web and elsewhere: Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs, Emoticons, Transport and Map Symbols are only the most used, but I could go on with symbols like Mahjong tiles and alchemical ones, all belonging to the Supplementary Multilingual Plane.

Unicode has a definite structure for allocating code points (that is, symbol encodings) that won't presumably change across versions, and you may very well leverage that:

Between 1F000 and 1F0FF you are -only- going to find game symbols
Between 1F300 and 1FBFF you are -never- going to find an alphabetic or language writing symbol, enclosed or otherwise
Between E0000 and E007D you are going to find the mysterious Tags code block: when encapsulated by 1F3F4 (Which is this: ?) and E007F they allow rendering flags, acting as modifying characters. if you filter out the black flag, filter this ones out too!

So, instead on relying on hacky preg_replaces implementations which are not safe for multibyte strings (and that is the reason we have mb_ereg_replace), use the Intl module:

/**
  * Removes all characters within a Unicode codepoint range, *extremes included*, from a given UTF-8 string
  * @param string $text The text to filter
  * @param int $rangeStart The beginning of the Unicode range
  * @param int $rangeEnd The end of the Unicode range
  * @return string The filtered string
 */
function SanifyUnicodeRange(string $input, int $rangeStart, int $rangeEnd) {
     /*
     If you have php >= 7.4, use mb_str_split in place of the following 7 lines 
     If you are using another UTF encoding and you're not using mb_str_split, 
     remember to change it below
     */
     $inputLength = mb_strlen($input);
     $charactersArray = array();
     while ($inputLength) { 
         $charactersArray[] = mb_substr($input, 0, 1, "UTF-8");
         $input = mb_substr($input, 1, $inputLength, "UTF-8"); 
         $inputLength = mb_strlen($input);
     }
     //Iterate over the characters array, and implode (which is mb-safe) it back into a string
     return implode('', array_filter($charactersArray, function ($unicodeCharacter) use ($rangeStart, $rangeEnd) {
         $codePoint = IntlChar::ord($unicodeCharacter);
         //Does it fall within the code block we're filtering?
         return ($codePoint < $rangeStart || $codePoint > $rangeEnd);
     }));
 }

Solution 7:^[7]

We had a really long fight with emojis at my work, we found a few regex for this problem but none of them worked. This one is working:

Edit: This does not cover ALL the emojis. I'm still searching for the Holy Grail of Emoji Regexp, but not found it yet.

return preg_replace('/([0-9|#][\x{20E3}])|[\x{00ae}\x{00a9}\x{203C}\x{2047}\x{2048}\x{2049}\x{3030}\x{303D}\x{2139}\x{2122}\x{3297}\x{3299}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2190}-\x{21FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2300}-\x{23FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2460}-\x{24FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{25A0}-\x{25FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2600}-\x{27BF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2900}-\x{297F}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{2B00}-\x{2BF0}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?|[\x{1F000}-\x{1F6FF}][\x{FE00}-\x{FEFF}]?/u', '', $text);

Solution 8:^[8]

It's a simple regex but supports it all!

$re = '/[
(\x{1F600}-\x{1F64F})|
(\x{2700}-\x{27BF})|
(\x{1F680}-\x{1F6FF})|
(\x{24C2}-\x{1F251})|
(\x{1F30D}-\x{1F567})|
(\x{1F900}-\x{1F9FF})|
(\x{1F300}-\x{1F5FF})
]/mu';

Check out the result in here (regex101).

So your php function can be:

function removeEmojis($input) {
    $re = '/[
(\x{1F600}-\x{1F64F})|
(\x{2700}-\x{27BF})|
(\x{1F680}-\x{1F6FF})|
(\x{24C2}-\x{1F251})|
(\x{1F30D}-\x{1F567})|
(\x{1F900}-\x{1F9FF})|
(\x{1F300}-\x{1F5FF})
]/mu';
    $result = preg_replace($re, "", $input);
    return $result;
}

Solution 9:^[9]

I have solved this issue by using the same code WordPress uses to replace emojis by images

here is the code that I used and it worked perfectly as it has a comprehensive list of the most used emojis

The full code exists here https://pastebin.com/8MqGdD6p

here is how it works but make sure to copy the code from pastebin as this is the non-complete code

$content ='<span class="do">?</span> where emojis exist';
$partials = array('&#x1f469;&#x200d;); // the list of emojis 

foreach ( $partials as $emojum ) {
    if ( version_compare( phpversion(), '5.4', '<' ) ) {
        $emoji_char = html_entity_decode( $emojum, ENT_COMPAT, 'UTF-8' );
    } else {
        $emoji_char = html_entity_decode( $emojum );
    }
    if ( false !== strpos( $content, $emoji_char ) ) {
        $content = preg_replace( "/$emoji_char/", '', $content );
    }
}

Solution 10:^[10]

PHP remove Emojis or 4 byte characters

Emojis or BMP character have more than three bytes and maximum of four bytes per character. To store this type of characters, UTF8mb4 character set is needed in MySQL. And it is available only in MySQL 5.5.3 and above versions.

Otherwise, remove all 4 byte characters and store it in DB. Example script follows:

#to remove 4byte characters like emojis etc..
function replace_4byte($string) {
    return preg_replace('%(?:
          \xF0[\x90-\xBF][\x80-\xBF]{2}      # planes 1-3
        | [\xF1-\xF3][\x80-\xBF]{3}          # planes 4-15
        | \xF4[\x80-\x8F][\x80-\xBF]{2}      # plane 16
    )%xs', '', $string);    
}

Test with:

$string = "We test those emojis ? ? ?? ? ?";
$string = replace_4byte($string);
echo $string;

Output:

We test those emojis

Credits go to http://scriptsof.com/php-remove-emojis-or-4-byte-characters-19

Solution 11:^[11]

You can use this regex too:

$text = preg_replace('([*#0-9](?>\\xEF\\xB8\\x8F)?\\xE2\\x83\\xA3|\\xC2[\\xA9\\xAE]|\\xE2..(\\xF0\\x9F\\x8F[\\xBB-\\xBF])?(?>\\xEF\\xB8\\x8F)?|\\xE3(?>\\x80[\\xB0\\xBD]|\\x8A[\\x97\\x99])(?>\\xEF\\xB8\\x8F)?|\\xF0\\x9F(?>[\\x80-\\x86].(?>\\xEF\\xB8\\x8F)?|\\x87.\\xF0\\x9F\\x87.|..(\\xF0\\x9F\\x8F[\\xBB-\\xBF])?|(((?<zwj>\\xE2\\x80\\x8D)\\xE2\\x9D\\xA4\\xEF\\xB8\\x8F\k<zwj>\\xF0\\x9F..(\k<zwj>\\xF0\\x9F\\x91.)?|(\\xE2\\x80\\x8D\\xF0\\x9F\\x91.){2,3}))?))',' ',$text);

I searching many times and find it, Hope it will be useful.

Solution 12:^[12]

function emojiFilter($text){
$text = json_encode($text);
preg_match_all("/(\\\\ud83c\\\\u[0-9a-f]{4})|(\\\\ud83d\\\u[0-9a-f]{4})|(\\\\u[0-9a-f]{4})/", $text, $matchs);
if(!isset($matchs[0][0])) { return json_decode($text, true); }

$emoji = $matchs[0];
foreach($emoji as $ec) {
    $hex = substr($ec, -4);
    if(strlen($ec)==6) {
        if($hex>='2600' and $hex<='27ff') {
            $text = str_replace($ec, '', $text);
        }
    } else {
        if($hex>='dc00' and $hex<='dfff') {
            $text = str_replace($ec, '', $text);
        }
    }
}

return json_decode($text, true);  }

Solution 13:^[13]

@sglessard since the code is outdated, here the full list of all Emoji for 07/12/2018 You will be able to generate it, by running the source code i posted

Please let me know if you find any kind of issue, thank you.

public static function removeEmoji($text) {
    $regexEmoticons = [
        '/[\x{0023}]/u',
        '/[\x{002A}]/u',
        '/[\x{00A9}]/u',
        '/[\x{00AE}]/u',
        '/[\x{200D}]/u',
        '/[\x{203C}]/u',
        '/[\x{2049}]/u',
        '/[\x{20E3}]/u',
        '/[\x{2122}]/u',
        '/[\x{2139}]/u',
        '/[\x{2194}-\x{2199}]/u',
        '/[\x{21A9}-\x{21AA}]/u',
        '/[\x{231A}-\x{231B}]/u',
        '/[\x{2328}]/u',
        '/[\x{23CF}]/u',
        '/[\x{23E9}-\x{23F3}]/u',
        '/[\x{23F8}-\x{23FA}]/u',
        '/[\x{24C2}]/u',
        '/[\x{25AA}-\x{25AB}]/u',
        '/[\x{25B6}]/u',
        '/[\x{25C0}]/u',
        '/[\x{25FB}-\x{25FE}]/u',
        '/[\x{2600}-\x{2604}]/u',
        '/[\x{260E}]/u',
        '/[\x{2611}]/u',
        '/[\x{2614}-\x{2615}]/u',
        '/[\x{2618}]/u',
        '/[\x{261D}]/u',
        '/[\x{2620}]/u',
        '/[\x{2622}-\x{2623}]/u',
        '/[\x{2626}]/u',
        '/[\x{262A}]/u',
        '/[\x{262E}-\x{262F}]/u',
        '/[\x{2638}-\x{263A}]/u',
        '/[\x{2640}]/u',
        '/[\x{2642}]/u',
        '/[\x{2648}-\x{2653}]/u',
        '/[\x{265F}-\x{2660}]/u',
        '/[\x{2663}]/u',
        '/[\x{2665}-\x{2666}]/u',
        '/[\x{2668}]/u',
        '/[\x{267B}]/u',
        '/[\x{267E}-\x{267F}]/u',
        '/[\x{2692}-\x{2697}]/u',
        '/[\x{2699}]/u',
        '/[\x{269B}-\x{269C}]/u',
        '/[\x{26A0}-\x{26A1}]/u',
        '/[\x{26AA}-\x{26AB}]/u',
        '/[\x{26B0}-\x{26B1}]/u',
        '/[\x{26BD}-\x{26BE}]/u',
        '/[\x{26C4}-\x{26C5}]/u',
        '/[\x{26C8}]/u',
        '/[\x{26CE}-\x{26CF}]/u',
        '/[\x{26D1}]/u',
        '/[\x{26D3}-\x{26D4}]/u',
        '/[\x{26E9}-\x{26EA}]/u',
        '/[\x{26F0}-\x{26F5}]/u',
        '/[\x{26F7}-\x{26FA}]/u',
        '/[\x{26FD}]/u',
        '/[\x{2702}]/u',
        '/[\x{2705}]/u',
        '/[\x{2708}-\x{270D}]/u',
        '/[\x{270F}]/u',
        '/[\x{2712}]/u',
        '/[\x{2714}]/u',
        '/[\x{2716}]/u',
        '/[\x{271D}]/u',
        '/[\x{2721}]/u',
        '/[\x{2728}]/u',
        '/[\x{2733}-\x{2734}]/u',
        '/[\x{2744}]/u',
        '/[\x{2747}]/u',
        '/[\x{274C}]/u',
        '/[\x{274E}]/u',
        '/[\x{2753}-\x{2755}]/u',
        '/[\x{2757}]/u',
        '/[\x{2763}-\x{2764}]/u',
        '/[\x{2795}-\x{2797}]/u',
        '/[\x{27A1}]/u',
        '/[\x{27B0}]/u',
        '/[\x{27BF}]/u',
        '/[\x{2934}-\x{2935}]/u',
        '/[\x{2B05}-\x{2B07}]/u',
        '/[\x{2B1B}-\x{2B1C}]/u',
        '/[\x{2B50}]/u',
        '/[\x{2B55}]/u',
        '/[\x{3030}]/u',
        '/[\x{303D}]/u',
        '/[\x{3297}]/u',
        '/[\x{3299}]/u',
        '/[\x{FE0F}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F004}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F0CF}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F170}-\x{1F171}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F17E}-\x{1F17F}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F18E}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F191}-\x{1F19A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F1E6}-\x{1F1FF}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F201}-\x{1F202}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F21A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F22F}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F232}-\x{1F23A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F250}-\x{1F251}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F300}-\x{1F321}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F324}-\x{1F393}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F396}-\x{1F397}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F399}-\x{1F39B}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F39E}-\x{1F3F0}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F3F3}-\x{1F3F5}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F3F7}-\x{1F3FA}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F400}-\x{1F4FD}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F4FF}-\x{1F53D}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F549}-\x{1F54E}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F550}-\x{1F567}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F56F}-\x{1F570}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F573}-\x{1F57A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F587}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F58A}-\x{1F58D}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F590}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F595}-\x{1F596}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5A4}-\x{1F5A5}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5A8}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5B1}-\x{1F5B2}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5BC}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5C2}-\x{1F5C4}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5D1}-\x{1F5D3}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5DC}-\x{1F5DE}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5E1}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5E3}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5E8}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5EF}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5F3}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F5FA}-\x{1F64F}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F680}-\x{1F6C5}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6CB}-\x{1F6D2}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6E0}-\x{1F6E5}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6E9}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6EB}-\x{1F6EC}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6F0}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F6F3}-\x{1F6F9}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F910}-\x{1F93A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F93C}-\x{1F93E}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F940}-\x{1F945}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F947}-\x{1F970}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F973}-\x{1F976}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F97A}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F97C}-\x{1F9A2}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F9B0}-\x{1F9B9}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F9C0}-\x{1F9C2}]/u',
        '/[\x{1F9D0}-\x{1F9FF}]/u',
        '/[\x{E0062}-\x{E0063}]/u',
        '/[\x{E006C}]/u',
        '/[\x{E006E}]/u',
        '/[\x{E007F}]/u'
    ];

    return preg_replace($regexEmoticons, '', $text);
}

And here the code to generate it :

<?php

$emojisAsHex = [];
$emojisasAsDecHex = [];

preg_match_all(
    "/(?:>|\s)+(U\+)(?'emojis'[0-9ABCDEF]{4,5})(?:<|\s)+/",
    file_get_contents('http://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html'),
    $emojisAsHex
);

//flip it, to remove duplication
$emojisAsHex = array_flip(array_flip($emojisAsHex['emojis']));


foreach ($emojisAsHex as $emojiAsHex) {
    $emojisasAsDecHex[hexdec($emojiAsHex)] = $emojiAsHex;
}

ksort($emojisasAsDecHex);




$outputHexa = '';
$else = '';

$startI = key($emojisasAsDecHex);
$endI =max(array_keys($emojisasAsDecHex)) + 1;

for ($i = $startI; $i < $endI; $i++) {
    if (isset($emojisasAsDecHex[$i]) && isset($emojisasAsDecHex[(1 + $i)])) {

        $outputHexa .=  "'/[\x{" . $emojisasAsDecHex[$i] . '}';
        while (isset($emojisasAsDecHex[(1 + $i)])) {

            $i++;
        }

        $outputHexa .=  '-\x{' . $emojisasAsDecHex[$i] . "}]/u'," . PHP_EOL;
    } else if (isset($emojisasAsDecHex[$i])) {
        $outputHexa .= "'/[\x{" . $emojisasAsDecHex[$i] . "}]/u'," . PHP_EOL;
    }
}


var_dump($outputHexa);

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution	Source
Solution 1
Solution 2	agapitocandemor
Solution 3
Solution 4
Solution 5	JoÃ£o Neto
Solution 6
Solution 7
Solution 8
Solution 9	Atef
Solution 10	Avatar
Solution 11	Brian Tompsett - æ±¤èŽ±æ©
Solution 12	Lee Jun
Solution 13

'PHP : writing a simple removeEmoji function

Solution 1:[1]

Solution 2:[2]

Solution 3:[3]

Solution 4:[4]

Solution 5:[5]

Solution 6:[6]

Solution 7:[7]

Solution 8:[8]

Solution 9:[9]

Solution 10:[10]

Solution 11:[11]

Solution 12:[12]

Solution 13:[13]