title: PHP: How to get rid of strange characters like "\u00a0"?
body: <p>I got a messy bunch of JSON data to import into my database (for further purposes). When i checked them out (opened in a Text Editor), they contain so many weird (gibberish) characters like:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>\u00a0</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>For example, <code>data.json</code>:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[{"title":"hello world!","html_body":"&lt;p&gt;Hello\u00a0 from the\u00a0  other side.\u00a0 &lt;\/p&gt;"}]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And then, obviously, below code simply WON'T work:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$clean = str_replace("\u00a0", "", $string);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Despite whatever those character are for, <strong>how can i get rid of them</strong> anyway please?</p>