How to Remove Whitespace and Line Terminator Characters in JavaScript

trim(), trimStart() and trimEnd() are native JavaScript methods to remove whitespace (space, tab, no-break space, etc) and line terminator characters (LF, CR, etc) from a string. It is usually a good practice to clean up strings entered from the application input.

What is the Difference Between trim(), trimStart() and trimEnd()?

  • trim() will remove all whitespaces and line terminators of a string
  • trimStart() will only remove ALL whitespaces and line terminators from the beginning of a string
  • trimEnd() will only remove ALL whitespaces and line terminators from the end of a string

How to Remove Leading and Trailing Spaces and Line Terminators from a String in JavaScript

String.prototype.trim() will remove all whitespaces and line terminators character from the start and end of the string.


// remove all leading and trailing white spaces
const userName = '  Jay  ';
userName.trim(); // => 'Jay'

// remove all leading and trailing line terminators
const userName = '\t  Jay\n  ';
userName.trim(); // => 'Jay'

How to Remove whitespaces and Line Terminators From the Start of a String in JavaScript

String.prototype.trimStart() will only remove whitespace and line terminators from the beginning of a string


// remove all leading white spaces
const userName = '  Jay  ';
userName.trimStart(); // => 'Jay  '

// remove all leading line terminators
const userName = '\t  Jay\n  ';
userName.trimStart(); // => 'Jay\n  '

How to Remove whitespaces and Line Terminators From the End of a String in JavaScript

String.prototype.trimEnd() will only remove whitespace and line terminators from the end of a string


// remove all trailing white spaces
const userName = '  Jay  ';
userName.trimEnd(); // => '  Jay'

// remove all trailing line terminators
const userName = '\t  Jay\n  ';
userName.trimEnd(); // => '\t  Jay'

You May Also Like