In this Python tutorial, we will learn how to trim a string in Python using the different examples:
There are 5 ways to trim a string in Python, which are shown below:
- Using strip() function
- Using the lstrip() method
- Using the strip() method
- Using regular expressions
- Using replace() method
How to trim a string in Python
Trimming a string refers to removing any leading or trailing whitespace characters or other specified characters from a given string.
In Python, there are several ways to trim a string, including using string methods such as strip(), lstrip(), and rstrip(), regular expressions, replace() method and etc.
Method-1: How to trim a string in Python using strip() function
The strip() method removes any leading or trailing whitespace characters (spaces, tabs, newlines) from a string.
# Define a string variable
cities_of_USA = ' New York, Los Angeles, California '
# Print the original string
print("Input String :",cities_of_USA )
# Use the str.strip() function to remove leading and trailing whitespaces from the string
new_output = cities_of_USA.strip()
# Print the string after trimming whitespaces
print(" Input String after trimming :", new_output)
The above code removes whitespace characters from a string using the strip() method in Python.
- It creates a string called cities_of_USA, which contains a list of cities separated by commas and surrounded by whitespace characters.
- After that, the strip() method is called on the cities_of_USA variable. This method removes all whitespace characters from the beginning and end of the string but does not remove whitespace characters between words.
- Finally, the code prints the new string using the print() function and the variable new_output.
Output: Input String : New York, Los Angeles, California
Input String after trimming : New York, Los Angeles, California
Read: Python format number with commas
Method-2: How to trim a string in Python using the lstrip() method
The lstrip() method removes any leading whitespace characters from a string.
# Define a string with leading whitespaces
string = " United Kingdom "
# Use the string method lstrip() to remove leading whitespaces
trimmed_text = string.lstrip()
# Print the trimmed string
print(trimmed_text)
The above code initializes a string variable named “string” with the value ” United Kingdom “. The string contains whitespace characters at the beginning and end.
- Next, the string method “lstrip()” is applied to the “string” variable. The lstrip() method removes any whitespace characters from the beginning of the string. The resulting trimmed string is assigned to a new variable named “trimmed_text”.
- Finally, the trimmed string is printed to the console using the print() function.
Read: Python string formatting
Method-3: How to trim a string in Python using the rstrip()
The rstrip() method removes any trailing whitespace characters from a string.
# Define a string with leading whitespaces
string = " United Kingdom "
# Use the string method rstrip() to remove trailing whitespaces
trimmed_text = string.rstrip()
# Print the trimmed string
print(trimmed_text)
The above code initializes a string variable named “string” with the value ” United Kingdom “. The string contains whitespace characters at the beginning and end.
- Next, the string method “rstrip()” is applied to the “string” variable. The rstrip() method removes any whitespace characters from the end of the string. The resulting trimmed string is assigned to a new variable named “trimmed_text”.
- Finally, the trimmed string is printed to the console using the print() function.
Output: United Kingdom
Read: Python split string by space
Method-4: How to trim a string in Python using regular expressions
Another way to trim a string in Python is by using regular expressions. The re module in Python provides functions for working with regular expressions.
# Import the regular expression (re) module
import re
# Define a string with leading and trailing whitespace
text = " USA "
# Remove the leading and trailing whitespace using the sub() method of the re module
trimmed_text = re.sub(r'^\s+|\s+$', '', text)
# Print the resulting string
print(trimmed_text)
The above code performs string trimming using the re module. First, the string ” USA “ is assigned to the variable text.
- Then, the re.sub() function is used to remove any leading or trailing white space from the string. The regular expression r’^\s+|\s+$’ is used as the pattern to match leading and trailing white space characters.
- The resulting trimmed string is then printed using the
print()
function.
Output: USA
Read: Python find number in String
Method-5: How to trim a string in Python using replace() method
Another way to trim a string in Python is to use the replace() method. The replace() method replaces all occurrences of a specified substring with another string.
# Define a string variable with leading and trailing whitespace
text = " USA "
# Use the replace() method to remove all spaces from the string
trimmed_text = text.replace(" ", "")
# Print the trimmed string
print(trimmed_text) # Output: "USA"
The above code creates a string variable text with leading and trailing whitespace. The whitespace consists of three spaces before the string “USA” and three spaces after the string.
- The second line uses the replace() method to remove all spaces from the string. The replace() method takes two arguments: the substring to be replaced (in this case, a space character
" "
) and the string to replace it with (in this case, an empty string “”). - The replace() method returns a new string with all occurrences of the specified substring replaced.
- The result of the replace() method is assigned to a new variable trimmed_text. The third line prints the trimmed string.
Output: USA
You may also like to read the following Python tutorials.
- Python 3 string methods
- Python find substring in string
- Python remove substring from a String
- Remove Newlines from a String in Python
In this Python tutorial, we have covered how to trim the string using the following methods:
- Using strip() function
- Using the lstrip() method
- Using the rstrip()
- Using regular expressions
- Using replace() method
I am Bijay Kumar, a Microsoft MVP in SharePoint. Apart from SharePoint, I started working on Python, Machine learning, and artificial intelligence for the last 5 years. During this time I got expertise in various Python libraries also like Tkinter, Pandas, NumPy, Turtle, Django, Matplotlib, Tensorflow, Scipy, Scikit-Learn, etc… for various clients in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Check out my profile.