Clearing whitespace for user input data when posting to table - php

Question

I am trying to clear whitespace and add a '#' character at the beginning when the user inputs a name to post to the database.
I already have a working script to allow users to input data and modify it, but I want to include a script where the whitespace is cleared and a '#' is added before the name.
E.g. If user inputs 'John Whatsmyname' - it will be posted as - #JohnWhatsmyname in the table
I thought it would just be as simple as adding something like this;
$name = ($_POST['name']);
$name = '#'.str_replace(' ', '', $name);
$name = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $name);
Currently I have the following HTML;
<input type="text" value="<?php echo $user_data['name']; ?>" placeholder="username" name="name"/>
<input type="text" value="<?php echo $user_data['email']; ?>" placeholder="Email" name="email"/>
Full PHP script:
<?php
if (empty($_POST) === false) {
$required_fields = array('name', 'email');
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value) {
if (empty($value) && in_array($key, $required_fields) === true) {
$errors[] = 'Name & email are required';
break 1;
}
}
$name = ($_POST['name']);
$name = '#'.str_replace(' ', '', $name);
$name = preg_replace('/\s+/', '', $name);
<?php
if (isset($_GET['success']) === true && empty($_GET['success']) === true) {
echo 'Your details have been updated!';
} else {
if (empty($_POST) === false && empty($errors) === true) {
$update_data = array(
'info' => $_POST['info'],
'website' => $_POST['website'],
'location' => $_POST['location'],
$name => $_POST['name'],
'email' => $_POST['email'],
);
update_user($session_user_id, $update_data);
header('Location: profile.php?success');
exit();
} else if (empty($errors) === false) {
echo output_errors($errors);
}
}
?>
I think when I am applying the changes I am doing nothing with then therefore the script continues and updates the table with the original data - I have echoed the $name variable and I get the error undefined variable.
The script needs to change the name by putting a '#' at the beginning and removes all whitespace not just the beginning and end before posting to the table. Trying to avoid error messages and have a script to fix the problem.
Thanks (Y)

Answer 1

You are not seeing it work because you do all the work to process $name, and then your $update_data array goes and pulls a fresh copy from the global $_POST array. Instead, you should change it to this:
$name = isset($_POST['name']) ? trim($_POST['name']) : '';
if (empty($name))
{
die('No name provided');
}
// Format name
$name = '#'.str_replace(' ', '', $name);
$update_data = array(
'info' => $_POST['info'],
'website' => $_POST['website'],
'location' => $_POST['location'],
'name' => $name,
'email' => $_POST['email'],
);