protected static function _cleanVar($var, $mask = 0, $type = null)
	{
		// If the no trim flag is not set, trim the variable
		if (!($mask & 1) && is_string($var))
		{
			$var = trim($var);
		}

		// Now we handle input filtering
		if ($mask & 2)
		{
			// If the allow raw flag is set, do not modify the variable
			$var = $var;
		}
		elseif ($mask & 4)
		{
			// If the allow HTML flag is set, apply a safe HTML filter to the variable
			$safeHtmlFilter = JFilterInput::getInstance(null, null, 1, 1);
			$var = $safeHtmlFilter->clean($var, $type);
		}
		else
		{
			// Since no allow flags were set, we will apply the most strict filter to the variable
			// $tags, $attr, $tag_method, $attr_method, $xss_auto use defaults.
			$noHtmlFilter = JFilterInput::getInstance();
			$var = $noHtmlFilter->clean($var, $type);
		}

		return $var;
	}