How do I trim whitespace from a string in Python?
When working with Python strings, a pretty common question is how to trim whitespace from a string. Whitespace characters are the space (
), tab (\t
), newline (\n
), and carriage return characters (\r
). Here are 3 different methods to trim whitespace from a string in Python.
Remove leading and trailing whitespace characters
Use the str.strip()
method to remove whitespace characters from both the beginning and end of a string.
' Hello '.strip() # 'Hello'
Remove leading whitespace characters
Leading whitespace characters are the whitespace characters at the start of a string. To remove them, use the str.lstrip()
method.
' Hello '.lstrip() # 'Hello '
Remove trailing whitespace characters
Trailing whitespace characters are the whitespace characters at the end of a string. To remove them, use the str.rstrip()
method.
' Hello '.rstrip() # ' Hello'