Strip non alphanumeric characters from a string

strip-nonalphanumeric.php

<?php
    /*
        Found here:
        http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2006/07/27/strip-non-alphanumeric-characters-from-a-string-with-php/
    */

    $string_to_be_stripped = "Hi, I am a string and I need to be stripped...";
    $new_string = ereg_replace("[^A-Za-z0-9]", "", $string_to_be_stripped );
?>