C# String Trim()

using System;  
namespace CsharpString {  
  class Test {
    public static void Main(string [] args) {
  
      string text = "    Ice cream   ";

      // trims leading and trailing whitespaces 
      string s1 = text.Trim();

      Console.WriteLine(s1);

      Console.ReadLine();    
    }
  } 
}
// Output: Ice cream

Trim() Syntax

The syntax of the string Trim() method is:

Trim(params char[]? trimChars)

Here, Trim() is a method of class String.

Trim() Parameters

The Trim() method takes the following parameter:

• trimChars - an array of characters to remove

Trim() Return Value

The Trim() method returns:

• a string with leading and trailing whitespace or specified characters removed

Note: In programming, whitespace is any character or series of characters that represent horizontal or vertical space. For example: space, newline \n, tab \t, vertical tab \v etc.

Example 1: C# String Trim()

using System;  
namespace CsharpString {  
  class Test {
    public static void Main(string [] args) {
  
      string text1 = "\n\n\n Ice\ncream  \n\n";
      string text2 = "\n\n\n Chocolate  \n\n";

      // trims leading and trailing whitespaces 
      string s1 = text1.Trim();
      Console.WriteLine(s1);

      // trims leading and trailing whitespaces 
      string s2 = text2.Trim();
      Console.WriteLine(s2);

      Console.ReadLine();    
    }
  } 
}

Output

Ice
cream
Chocolate

Here,

• text1.Trim() returns:

Ice
cream

• text2.Trim() returns:

Chocolate

As you can see from the above example, the Trim() method only removes the leading and trailing whitespace. It doesn't remove whitespaces that appear in the middle.

Example 2: C# String Trim() - Trim Characters

using System;  
namespace CsharpString {  
  class Test {
    public static void Main(string [] args) {
     
      // chars to trim
      char[] charsToTrim = {'(', ')', '^'};

      string text = "(^^Everyone loves ice cream^^)";
      Console.WriteLine("Before trim: " + text);

      // trims leading and trailing specified chars
      string s1 = text.Trim(charsToTrim);
      Console.WriteLine("After trim: " + s1);
      
      Console.ReadLine();    
    }
  } 
}

Output

Before trim: (^^Everyone loves ice cream^^)
After trim: Everyone loves ice cream

Here, we have used the Trim() method to remove leading and trailing '(', ')', and '^' characters.

Note: To remove whitespaces or characters between words in a string, you must use Regular Expressions.

Example 3: C# String TrimStart() and TrimEnd()

using System;  
namespace CsharpString {  
  class Test {
    public static void Main(string [] args) {
     
      string text = "  Everyone loves ice cream  \n\n";
      string result;
      
      // trims starting whitespace
      result = text.TrimStart();
      Console.WriteLine(result);  

            
      // trims ending whitespace
      result = text.TrimEnd();
      Console.WriteLine(result);   

      Console.ReadLine();    
    }
  } 
}

Output

Everyone loves ice cream


  Everyone loves ice cream

Here,

• text.TrimStart() - removes starting whitespaces
• text.TrimEnd() - removes ending whitespaces