- preg_replace: documentation ( source)
<?php
$datumOrt = 'Basel 77a';
$whiteSpace = '\s'; //if you dnt even want to allow white-space set it to ''
$pattern = '/[^a-zA-Z' . $whiteSpace . ']/u';
$datumOrt = preg_replace($pattern, '', (string) $datumOrt);
echo $datumOrt;