Strip whitespace from a string/Top and tail

The task is to demonstrate how to strip leading and trailing whitespace from a string. The solution should demonstrate how to achieve the following three results:

String with leading whitespace removed
String with trailing whitespace removed
String with both leading and trailing whitespace removed

For the purposes of this task whitespace includes non printable characters such as the space character, the tab character, and other such characters that have no corresponding graphical representation.

C

<lang c>#include <stdio.h>

include <stdlib.h>
include <string.h>
include <ctype.h>

char *rtrim(const char *s) {

 while( isspace(*s) || !isprint(*s) ) ++s;
 return strdup(s);

}

char *ltrim(const char *s) {

 char *r = strdup(s);
 if (r != NULL)
 {
   char *fr = r + strlen(s) - 1;
   while( (isspace(*fr) || !isprint(*fr) || *fr == 0) && fr >= r) --fr;
   *++fr = 0;
 }
 return r;

}

char *trim(const char *s) {

 char *r = rtrim(s);
 char *f = ltrim(r);
 free(r);
 return f;

}

const char *a = " this is a string ";

int main() {

 char *b = rtrim(a);
 char *c = ltrim(a);
 char *d = trim(a);

 printf("'%s'\n'%s'\n'%s'\n", b, c, d);
 
 free(b);
 free(c);
 free(d);
 return 0;

}</lang>

J

Note: The quote verb is only used to enclose the resulting string in single quotes so the beginning and end of the new string are visible. <lang j> require 'strings' NB. the strings library is automatically loaded in versions from J7 on

  quote dlb '  String with spaces   '    NB. delete leading blanks

'String with spaces '

  quote dtb '  String with spaces   '    NB. delete trailing blanks

' String with spaces'

  quote dltb '  String with spaces   '   NB. delete leading and trailing blanks

'String with spaces'</lang> In addition deb (delete extraneous blanks) will trim both leading and trailing blanks as well as replace consecutive spaces within the string with a single space. <lang j> quote deb ' String with spaces ' NB. delete extraneous blanks 'String with spaces'</lang> These existing definitions can be easily amended to include whitespace other than spaces if desired. <lang j>whpsc=: ' ',TAB NB. define whitespace as desired dlws=: }.~ (e.&whpsc i. 0:) NB. delete leading whitespace (spaces and tabs) dtws=: #~ ([: +./\. -.@:e.&whpsc) NB. delete trailing whitespace dltws=: #~ ([: (+./\ *. +./\.) -.@:e.&whpsc) NB. delete leading & trailing whitespace dews=: #~ (+. (1: |. (> </\)))@(-.@:e.&whpsc) NB. delete extraneous whitespace</lang>

Java

Left trim and right trim taken from here.

Character.isWhitespace() returns true if the character given is one of the following Unicode characters: '\u00A0', '\u2007', '\u202F', '\u0009', '\u000A', '\u000B', '\u000C', '\u000D', '\u001C', '\u001D', '\u001E', or '\u001F'. <lang java> public class Trims{

  public static String ltrim(String s){
     int i = 0;
     while (i < s.length() && Character.isWhitespace(s.charAt(i))){
        i++;
     }
     return s.substring(i);
  }

  public static String rtrim(String s){
     int i = s.length() - 1;
     while (i > 0 && Character.isWhitespace(s.charAt(i))){
        i--;
     }
     return s.substring(0, i + 1);
  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
     String s = " \t \r \n String with spaces  \t  \r  \n  ";
     System.out.println(ltrim(s));
     System.out.println(rtrim(s));
     System.out.println(s.trim()); //trims both ends
  }

}</lang>

Objective-C

Works with: Cocoa

Works with: GNUstep

<lang objc>#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface NSString (RCExt) -(NSString *) ltrim; -(NSString *) rtrim; -(NSString *) trim; @end

@implementation NSString (RCExt) -(NSString *) ltrim {

 NSInteger i;
 NSCharacterSet *cs = [NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet];
 for(i = 0; i < [self length]; i++)
 {
   if ( ![cs characterIsMember: [self characterAtIndex: i]] ) break;
 }
 return [self substringFromIndex: i];

}

-(NSString *) rtrim {

 NSInteger i;
 NSCharacterSet *cs = [NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet];
 for(i = [self length] -1; i >= 0; i--)
 {
   if ( ![cs characterIsMember: [self characterAtIndex: i]] ) break;    
 }
 return [self substringToIndex: (i+1)];

}

-(NSString *) trim {

 return [self

stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet: [NSCharacterSet whitespaceAndNewlineCharacterSet]]; } @end

int main() {

 NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];
 NSString *s = @"     this is a string     ";

 NSLog(@"'%@'", s);
 NSLog(@"'%@'", [s ltrim]);
 NSLog(@"'%@'", [s rtrim]);
 NSLog(@"'%@'", [s trim]);

 [pool release];
 return 0;

}</lang>

OCaml

<lang ocaml>let left_pos s len =

 let rec aux i =
   if i >= len then None
   else match s.[i] with
   | ' ' | '\n' | '\t' | '\r' -> aux (succ i)
   | _ -> Some i
 in
 aux 0

let right_pos s len =

 let rec aux i =
   if i < 0 then None
   else match s.[i] with
   | ' ' | '\n' | '\t' | '\r' -> aux (pred i)
   | _ -> Some i
 in
 aux (pred len)

let trim s =

 let len = String.length s in
 match left_pos s len, right_pos s len with
 | Some i, Some j -> String.sub s i (j - i + 1)
 | None, None -> ""
 | _ -> assert false

let ltrim s =

 let len = String.length s in
 match left_pos s len with
 | Some i -> String.sub s i (len - i)
 | None -> ""

let rtrim s =

 let len = String.length s in
 match right_pos s len with
 | Some i -> String.sub s 0 (i + 1)
 | None -> ""</lang>

we put the previous code in a file called "trim.ml", and then we test these functions in the toplevel:

$ ocaml
# #use "trim.ml" ;;
val left_pos : string -> int -> int option = <fun>
val right_pos : string -> int -> int option = <fun>
val trim : string -> string = <fun>
val ltrim : string -> string = <fun>
val rtrim : string -> string = <fun>
# let s = " \t \r \n String with spaces \t \r \n " ;;
val s : string = " \t \r \n String with spaces \t \r \n "
# trim s ;;
- : string = "String with spaces"
# ltrim s ;;
- : string = "String with spaces \t \r \n "
# rtrim s ;;
- : string = " \t \r \n String with spaces"

Perl

<lang perl>use strict;

sub ltrim {

   my $c = shift;
   $c =~ s/^\s+//;
   return $c;

}

sub rtrim {

   my $c = shift;
   $c =~ s/\s+$//;
   return $c;

}

sub trim {

   my $c = shift;
   return ltrim(rtrim($c));

}

my $p = " this is a string ";

print "'", $p, "'\n"; print "'", trim($p), "'\n"; print "'", ltrim($p), "'\n"; print "'", rtrim($p), "'\n";</lang>

Perl 6

<lang perl6>my $s = "\r\n \t\x2029 Good Stuff \x2028\n"; say $s.trim.perl; say $s.trim-leading.perl; say $s.trim-trailing.perl;</lang>

QBasic

<lang qbasic> mystring$=ltrim(mystring$) ' remove leading whitespace

mystring$=rtrim(mystring$)           ' remove trailing whitespace
mystring$=ltrim(rtrim(mystring$))    ' remove both leading and trailing whitespace

</lang>

PL/I

<lang PL/I> put ( trim(text, ' ', ) ); /* trims leading blanks. */ put ( trim(text, , ' '); /* trims trailing blanks. */ put ( trim(text) ); /* trims leading and trailing */

                                     /* blanks.                     */

</lang> To remove any white-space character(s) in a portable way:- <lang> declare whitespace character(10) value

  ((substr(collate(), 1, 32) || ' '));

put ( trim(text, whitespace) ); /* trims leading white space. */ put ( trim(text, , whitespace) ); /* trims trailing white space. */ put ( trim(text, whitespace, whitespace) );

                                     /* trims leading and trailing  */
                                     /* white space.                */

</lang>

PureBasic

Note, if only spaces need to be removed, PureBasic provides commands that do this: LTrim(), RTrim(), and Trim(). To handle a larger selection of whitespace the following functions meet the task. <lang PureBasic>;define the whitespace as desired

whitespace$ = " " + Chr($9) + Chr($A) + Chr($B) + Chr($C) + Chr($D) + Chr($1C) + Chr($1D) + Chr($1E) + Chr($1F)

Procedure.s myLTrim(source.s)

 Protected i, *ptrChar.Character, length = Len(source)
 *ptrChar = @source
 For i = 1 To length
   If Not FindString(#whitespace$, Chr(*ptrChar\c))
     ProcedureReturn Right(source, length + 1 - i)
   EndIf
   *ptrChar + SizeOf(Character)
 Next

EndProcedure

Procedure.s myRTrim(source.s)

 Protected i, *ptrChar.Character, length = Len(source)
 *ptrChar = @source + (length - 1) * SizeOf(Character)
 For i = length To 1 Step - 1
   If Not FindString(#whitespace$, Chr(*ptrChar\c))
     ProcedureReturn Left(source, i)
   EndIf
   *ptrChar - SizeOf(Character)
 Next

EndProcedure

Procedure.s myTrim(source.s)

 ProcedureReturn myRTrim(myLTrim(source))

EndProcedure

If OpenConsole()

 PrintN(#DQUOTE$ + myLTrim("  Top  ") + #DQUOTE$)
 PrintN(#DQUOTE$ + myRTrim("  Tail  ") + #DQUOTE$)
 PrintN(#DQUOTE$ +  myTrim("  Both  ") + #DQUOTE$)
 
 Print(#CRLF$ + #CRLF$ + "Press ENTER to exit"): Input()
 CloseConsole()

EndIf</lang> Sample output:

"Top  "
"  Tail"
"Both"

Python

<lang python>>>> s = ' \t \r \n String with spaces \t \r \n ' >>> s ' \t \r \n String with spaces \t \r \n ' >>> s.lstrip() 'String with spaces \t \r \n ' >>> s.rstrip() ' \t \r \n String with spaces' >>> s.strip() 'String with spaces' >>> </lang>

Sather

<lang sather>class MAIN is

   ltrim(s :STR) :STR is
     i ::= 0;
     loop while!(i < s.size);
       if " \t\f\v\n".contains(s[i]) then
          i := i + 1;
       else
          break!;
       end;
     end;
     return s.tail(s.size - i);
   end;

   rtrim(s :STR) :STR is
     i ::= s.size-1;
     loop while!(i >= 0);
       if " \t\f\v\n".contains(s[i]) then
          i := i - 1;
       else
          break!;
       end;
     end;
     return s.head(i+1);
   end;

   trim(s :STR) :STR is
      return ltrim(rtrim(s));
   end;

   main is
     p ::= "     this is a string     ";
     #OUT + ltrim(p).pretty + "\n";
     #OUT + rtrim(p).pretty + "\n";
     #OUT + trim(p).pretty + "\n";
   end;

end;</lang>

Smalltalk

Works with: GNU Smalltalk

<lang smalltalk>String extend [

  ltrim [
     ^self replacingRegex: '^\s+' with: .
  ]
  rtrim [
     ^self replacingRegex: '\s+$' with: .
  ]
  trim [
     ^self ltrim rtrim.
  ]

]

|a| a := ' this is a string '.

('"%1"' % {a}) displayNl. ('"%1"' % {a ltrim}) displayNl. ('"%1"' % {a rtrim}) displayNl. ('"%1"' % {a trim}) displayNl.</lang>