Trim string in JavaScript?

The trim from jQuery is convenient if you are already using that framework.

$.trim('  your string   ');

I tend to use jQuery often, so trimming strings with it is natural for me. But it's possible that there is backlash against jQuery out there? :)

Although there are a bunch of correct answers above, it should be noted that the String object in JavaScript has a native .trim() method as of ECMAScript 5. Thus ideally any attempt to prototype the trim method should really check to see if it already exists first.

if(!String.prototype.trim){  
  String.prototype.trim = function(){  
    return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,'');  
  };  
}

Added natively in: JavaScript 1.8.1 / ECMAScript 5

Thus supported in:

Firefox: 3.5+

Safari: 5+

Internet Explorer: IE9+ (in Standards mode only!) http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2010/06/25/enhanced-scripting-in-ie9-ecmascript-5-support-and-more.aspx

Chrome: 5+

Opera: 10.5+

ECMAScript 5 Support Table: http://kangax.github.com/es5-compat-table/

There are a lot of implementations that can be used. The most obvious seems to be something like this:

String.prototype.trim = function() {
    return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
};

" foo bar ".trim();  // "foo bar"

Simple version here What is a general function for JavaScript trim?

function trim(str) {
        return str.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,"");
}

I know this question has been asked three years back.Now,String.trim() was added natively in JavaScript.For an instance, you can trim directly as following,

document.getElementById("id").value.trim();

Flagrant Badassery has 11 different trims with benchmark information:

http://blog.stevenlevithan.com/archives/faster-trim-javascript

Non-surprisingly regexp-based are slower than traditional loop.

Here is my personal one. This code is old! I wrote it for JavaScript1.1 and Netscape 3 and it has been only slightly updated since. (Original used String.charAt)

/**
 *  Trim string. Actually trims all control characters.
 *  Ignores fancy Unicode spaces. Forces to string.
 */
function trim(str) {
    str = str.toString();
    var begin = 0;
    var end = str.length - 1;
    while (begin <= end && str.charCodeAt(begin) < 33) { ++begin; }
    while (end > begin && str.charCodeAt(end) < 33) { --end; }
    return str.substr(begin, end - begin + 1);
}

If you are using JQuery use jQuery.trim() function. For example, if( jQuery.trim(StringVariable) == '')

Use the Native JavaScript Methods: String.trimLeft(), String.trimRight(), and String.trim().

String.trim() is supported in IE9+ and all other major browsers:

'  Hello  '.trim()  //-> 'Hello'

String.trimLeft() and String.trimRight() are non-standard, but are supported in all major browsers except IE

'  Hello  '.trimLeft()   //-> 'Hello  '
'  Hello  '.trimRight()  //-> '  Hello'

IE support is easy with a polyfill however:

if (!''.trimLeft) {
    String.prototype.trimLeft = function() {
        return this.replace(/^\s+/,'');
    };
    String.prototype.trimRight = function() {
        return this.replace(/\s+$/,'');
    };
    if (!''.trim) {
        String.prototype.trim = function() {
            return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '');
        };
    }
}

Now days you can use string.trim() that is native Javascript implementation

var orig = "   foo  ";
console.log(orig.trim());//foo

See also

• trimLeft()
• trimRight()

String.prototype.trim = String.prototype.trim || function () {
    return this.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
};

String.prototype.trimLeft = String.prototype.trimLeft || function () {
    return this.replace(/^\s+/, "");
};

String.prototype.trimRight = String.prototype.trimRight || function () {
    return this.replace(/\s+$/, "");
};

String.prototype.trimFull = String.prototype.trimFull || function () {
    return this.replace(/(?:(?:^|\n)\s+|\s+(?:$|\n))/g, "").replace(/\s+/g, " ");
};

Shamelessly stolen from Matt duereg.

Trim code from angular js project

var trim = (function() {

  // if a reference is a `String`.
  function isString(value){
       return typeof value == 'string';
  } 

  // native trim is way faster: http://jsperf.com/angular-trim-test
  // but IE doesn't have it... :-(
  // TODO: we should move this into IE/ES5 polyfill

  if (!String.prototype.trim) {
    return function(value) {
      return isString(value) ? 
         value.replace(/^\s*/, '').replace(/\s*$/, '') : value;
    };
  }

  return function(value) {
    return isString(value) ? value.trim() : value;
  };

})();

and call it as trim(" hello ")

Here's a very simple way:

function removeSpaces(string){
return string.split(' ').join('');
}

You can just declare your variable as string and use its trim function:

var str = new String('my string'); 
str= str.trim();

use simply code

var str = "       Hello World!        ";
alert(str.trim());

I have a lib that uses trim. so solved it by using the following code.

String.prototype.trim = String.prototype.trim || function(){ return jQuery.trim(this); };

Today, pretty much every browser supports String.prototype.trim().

You use it like this :

var origStr = '   foo  ';
var newStr = origStr.trim(); // Value of newStr becomes 'foo'

In case you still might need to support an ancient browser that doesn't support this feature, this is a polyfill suggested by the MDN :

if (!String.prototype.trim) {
    String.prototype.trim = function () {
       return this.replace(/^[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+|[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+$/g, '');
    };
}

Don't know what bugs can hide here, but I use this:

var some_string_with_extra_spaces="   goes here    "
console.log(some_string_with_extra_spaces.match(/\S.*\S|\S/)[0])

Or this, if text contain enters:

console.log(some_string_with_extra_spaces.match(/\S[\s\S]*\S|\S/)[0])

Another try:

console.log(some_string_with_extra_spaces.match(/^\s*(.*?)\s*$/)[1])

Here it is in TypeScript:

var trim: (input: string) => string = String.prototype.trim
    ? ((input: string) : string => {
        return (input || "").trim();
    })
    : ((input: string) : string => {
        return (input || "").replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,"");
    })

It will fall back to the regex if the native prototype is not available.

I had written this function for trim, when the .trim() function was not available in JS way back in 2008. Some of the older browsers still do not support the .trim() function and i hope this function may help somebody.

TRIM FUNCTION

function trim(str)
{
    var startpatt = /^\s/;
    var endpatt = /\s$/;

    while(str.search(startpatt) == 0)
        str = str.substring(1, str.length);

    while(str.search(endpatt) == str.length-1)
        str = str.substring(0, str.length-1);   

    return str;
}

Explanation: The function trim() accept a string object and remove any starting and trailing whitespaces (spaces,tabs and newlines) and return the trimmed string. You can use this function to trim form inputs to ensure valid data to be sent.

The function can be called in the following manner as an example.

form.elements[i].value = trim(form.elements[i].value);

You can do it using the plain JavaScript:

function trimString(str, maxLen) {
if (str.length <= maxLen) {
return str;
}
var trimmed = str.substr(0, maxLen);
return trimmed.substr(0, trimmed.lastIndexOf(' ')) + '…';
}

// Let's test it

sentenceOne = "too short";
sentencetwo = "more than the max length";

console.log(trimString(sentenceOne, 15));
console.log(trimString(sentencetwo, 15));

Here are some of the more examples to trim a string using JavaScript.