maybe_serialize is used in conjunction with maybe_unserialize. from a logical point of view, data passed through both functions should be returned unchanged:
<?php
$data_original = ' original ';
$data = maybe_serialize($data_original);
$data = maybe_unserialize($data);
printf('Original:"%s" Processed:"%s"', $data_original, $data);
?>
the output is:
Original:" original " Processed:"original"
this example shows that data has been unecessarily manipulated.
when you look into the code you can see that maybe_serialize() trims the $data. this is of no use.
# to trim a string use trim() php function
# serialization is about arrays and objects, not strings
