The charater at the end of an array after u explode url

The charater at the end of an array after u explode url

if the url is like $url=artists/denaro/ and i go explode("/",$url). it
leaves a character in there is it a space or what as im trying to match
and remove it like so
$lastelement = end($named_request_data);
if($lastelement == " ")
{
unset($lastelement);
reset($named_request_data);
return $named_request_data;
}