How to Trim String in JavaScript

It’s super simple to remove whitespace from a string. To remove just the leading whitespace, you can use trimStart(). To remove trailing whitespace, use trimEnd(). Or remove it all with trim() 🙌

const string = "   hi   ";
string.trimStart(); // "hi   "
string.trimEnd();   // "   hi"
string.trim();      // "hi"

Trim Return Value

All trim methods, will return a new string. That means your original string will be left intact.

const string = "   hi   ";
string.trimStart(); // "hi   "
string.trimEnd();   // "   hi"
string.trim();      // "hi"
string;            // "   hi   "

What is Whitespace

So trim removes whitespace. So that is the white space created by:

• space
• tab
• no-break space
• line terminator characters

Trimming Line Terminator Characters

You might be wondering what are line terminator characters. Well, let’s take a look at some examples.

'hi \n'.trim(); // "hi"
'hi \t'.trim(); // "hi"
'hi \r'.trim(); // "hi"