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How do I trim whitespace from a string in Python?

When working with Python strings, a pretty common question is how to trim whitespace from a string. Whitespace characters are the space ( ), tab (\t), newline (\n), and carriage return characters (\r). Here are 3 different methods to trim whitespace from a string in Python.

Remove leading and trailing whitespace characters

Use the str.strip() method to remove whitespace characters from both the beginning and end of a string.

'  Hello  '.strip()    # 'Hello'

Remove leading whitespace characters

Leading whitespace characters are the whitespace characters at the start of a string. To remove them, use the str.lstrip() method.

'  Hello  '.lstrip()   # 'Hello  '

Remove trailing whitespace characters

Trailing whitespace characters are the whitespace characters at the end of a string. To remove them, use the str.rstrip() method.

'  Hello  '.rstrip()   # '  Hello'

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