Remove irregular spacing from either end of or within a text string.

TRIM(text)

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Remove irregular spacing from either end of or within a text string using either defined values (e.g. "string") or cell references (e.g. C3).

TRIM syntax requires just the defined value or cell reference to be trimmed.

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TRIM with a text string.

In the examples below, the TRIM function is used to remove irregular spacing before, within or after the defined text string " North America " or cell reference to "Ottawa ".

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Syntax

The TRIM function consists of 1 argument:

1. text. Required. The string from which to trim the irregular spaces.

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Try it now!

Enter your formula into the grey cells.

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Scope

TRIM() can be applied to cell references, text or numbers.

Cell reference:	=TRIM(C3)
Text:	=TRIM(" South America ") || returns South America.
Number:	=TRIM( 123456.78 )*1 || returns the number 123456.78.

Caveats

• The TRIM() function was designed to trim a 7-bit ASCII space character (value 32) from a text string.
• TRIM() will not remove nonbreaking space characters from the Unicode character set (value 160) such as   used in HTML.

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Related Functions

• The CLEAN() function can help remove the first 32 nonprinting characters in the 7-bit ASCII code (values 0 through 31) from text.
• The SUBSTITUTE() function can be used to replace higher value Unicode characters (values 127, 129, 141, 143, 157 and 160) with the 7-bit ASCII characters for which the TRIM() function was designed.

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Functions Category

• Text