Trim string in JavaScript

Question

How do I remove all whitespace from the start and end of the string?

Answer 1

All browsers since IE9+ have trim() method for strings.

" \n test \n ".trim(); // returns "test" here

For those browsers who does not support trim(), you can use this polyfill from MDN:

if (!String.prototype.trim) {
    (function() {
        // Make sure we trim BOM and NBSP
        var rtrim = /^[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+|[\s\uFEFF\xA0]+$/g;
        String.prototype.trim = function() {
            return this.replace(rtrim, '');
        };
    })();
}

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That said, if using jQuery, then $.trim(str) is always available, which handles undefined/null as well.

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See this:

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

String.prototype.ltrim=function(){return this.replace(/^\s+/,'');};

String.prototype.rtrim=function(){return this.replace(/\s+$/,'');};

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