Working with String.Trim() Function

Level: Beginner

Introduction:
This article discusses the main functionality of String.Trim() function and also explains how to trim other characters along with White Spaces.

Description:
As we all know that Trim() function is used to remove the Spaces from Left and Right of a String. E.g.:

Dim SomeText As String
SomeText = "    Text with some spaces on Left and Right         "
SomeText = SomeText.Trim()
Debug.Print(SomeText)

Output will be

Text with some spaces on Left and Right

But Trim() actually removes the White Space Characters (White Space = Space, Tab, Enter, etc.)

Example:

Dim SomeText As String
SomeText = vbTab & vbCrLf " Text with some spaces on Left and Right " & vbTab & vbCrLf
SomeText = SomeText.Trim()
Debug.Print(SomeText)

Still output will be the same.

Sometimes we also require to remove the other characters along with White Spaces.

For Example: We have taken a File Name from some other string and it contains Tab, Enter or Spaces in its Start and/or End plus the File Name will be enclosed in Apostrophe or Quotation (' or "). So we want to remove the White Spaces, Apostrophe/Quotation from Start/End. In this way we will get the plain file name only which we can use for other purposes. To check I am creating a file name here as,

FileName = vbTab & vbCrLf & "'C:\ABC\Def.txt'    "

As you can see I have added the Tab, Enter and Apostrophe in the start. Now to Trim it properly we will use the following code,

FileName = FileName.Trim() ' first remove the White Spaces
FileName = FileName.Trim("'"c, """"c) ' now remove the Apostrophe/Quotation

As you can see we have used a simple technique, i.e.

• first we have removed the White Space Characters by calling the simple Trim() function
• then we have used its overloaded definition i.e. Trim(ParamArray CharArray() as Char)