php string replace without empty space

I'm using str_replace to remove some tags within a string, it's being replaced with just '' but the line is still there, an empty line. I tried to remove \r\n and variations of, and开发者_运维问答 nothing will remove the empty line, without messing up other formatting.

Is there a way to replace an item in a string without leaving an empty line?

Thanks!

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Wrap str_replace with trim.

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Perform second replacement that removes empty lines