`strtrim`

Removes leading and trailing whitespace from text.

Category: Language Fundamentals > Data Types

Syntax

s = strtrim(str)

Returns str without leading or trailing whitespace.

Description

Whitespace here means blanks, tabs, newlines, carriage returns and similar characters. Spaces inside the text are untouched. For a cell array, each element is trimmed on its own.

A character matrix is only trimmed of columns that are blank in every row, so rows stay aligned. To remove other characters from the edges, use strip.

Input arguments

str: Character vector, string array, or cell array of character vectors.

Output arguments

s: Text of the same type and size as str.

Example

Characters, cells and strings

strtrim(sprintf('  hi \t\n'))
strtrim({' a ', 'b  '})
strtrim("  two words  ")

Output

ans = 'hi'
ans = 1×2 cell

    {'a'}    {'b'}
ans = "two words"

strtrim