I'm currently using the following code to right-trim all the std::strings in my programs:
std::string s;
s.erase(s.find_last_not_of(" \n\r\t")+1);
It works fine, but I wonder if there are some end-cases where it might fail?
Of course, answers with elegant alternatives and also left-trim solution are welcome.
EDIT Since c++17, some parts of the standard library were removed. Fortunately, starting with c++11, we have lambdas which are a superior solution.
#include <algorithm>
#include <cctype>
#include <locale>
// trim from start (in place)
static inline void ltrim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(s.begin(), std::find_if(s.begin(), s.end(), [](unsigned char ch) {
return !std::isspace(ch);
}));
}
// trim from end (in place)
static inline void rtrim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(std::find_if(s.rbegin(), s.rend(), [](unsigned char ch) {
return !std::isspace(ch);
}).base(), s.end());
}
// trim from both ends (in place)
static inline void trim(std::string &s) {
ltrim(s);
rtrim(s);
}
// trim from start (copying)
static inline std::string ltrim_copy(std::string s) {
ltrim(s);
return s;
}
// trim from end (copying)
static inline std::string rtrim_copy(std::string s) {
rtrim(s);
return s;
}
// trim from both ends (copying)
static inline std::string trim_copy(std::string s) {
trim(s);
return s;
}
Thanks to https://stackoverflow.com/a/44973498/524503 for bringing up the modern solution.
I tend to use one of these 3 for my trimming needs:
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <cctype>
#include <locale>
// trim from start
static inline std::string <rim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(s.begin(), std::find_if(s.begin(), s.end(),
std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))));
return s;
}
// trim from end
static inline std::string &rtrim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(std::find_if(s.rbegin(), s.rend(),
std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))).base(), s.end());
return s;
}
// trim from both ends
static inline std::string &trim(std::string &s) {
return ltrim(rtrim(s));
}
They are fairly self-explanatory and work very well.
EDIT: BTW, I have std::ptr_fun in there to help disambiguate std::isspace because there is actually a second definition which supports locales. This could have been a cast just the same, but I tend to like this better.
EDIT: To address some comments about accepting a parameter by reference, modifying and returning it. I Agree. An implementation that I would likely prefer would be two sets of functions, one for in place and one which makes a copy. A better set of examples would be:
#include <algorithm>
#include <functional>
#include <cctype>
#include <locale>
// trim from start (in place)
static inline void ltrim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(s.begin(), std::find_if(s.begin(), s.end(),
std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))));
}
// trim from end (in place)
static inline void rtrim(std::string &s) {
s.erase(std::find_if(s.rbegin(), s.rend(),
std::not1(std::ptr_fun<int, int>(std::isspace))).base(), s.end());
}
// trim from both ends (in place)
static inline void trim(std::string &s) {
ltrim(s);
rtrim(s);
}
// trim from start (copying)
static inline std::string ltrim_copy(std::string s) {
ltrim(s);
return s;
}
// trim from end (copying)
static inline std::string rtrim_copy(std::string s) {
rtrim(s);
return s;
}
// trim from both ends (copying)
static inline std::string trim_copy(std::string s) {
trim(s);
return s;
}
I am keeping the original answer above though for context and in the interest of keeping the high voted answer still available.
Using Boost's string algorithms would be easiest:
#include <boost/algorithm/string.hpp>
std::string str("hello world! ");
boost::trim_right(str);
str is now "hello world!". There's also trim_left and trim, which trims both sides.
If you add _copy suffix to any of above function names e.g. trim_copy, the function will return a trimmed copy of the string instead of modifying it through a reference.
If you add _if suffix to any of above function names e.g. trim_copy_if, you can trim all characters satisfying your custom predicate, as opposed to just whitespaces.
Use the following code to right trim (trailing) spaces and tab characters from std::strings (ideone):
// trim trailing spaces
size_t endpos = str.find_last_not_of(" \t");
size_t startpos = str.find_first_not_of(" \t");
if( std::string::npos != endpos )
{
str = str.substr( 0, endpos+1 );
str = str.substr( startpos );
}
else {
str.erase(std::remove(std::begin(str), std::end(str), ' '), std::end(str));
}
And just to balance things out, I'll include the left trim code too (ideone):
// trim leading spaces
size_t startpos = str.find_first_not_of(" \t");
if( string::npos != startpos )
{
str = str.substr( startpos );
}
With C++17 you can use basic_string_view::remove_prefix and basic_string_view::remove_suffix:
std::string_view trim(std::string_view s)
{
s.remove_prefix(std::min(s.find_first_not_of(" \t\r\v\n"), s.size()));
s.remove_suffix(std::min(s.size() - s.find_last_not_of(" \t\r\v\n") - 1, s.size()));
return s;
}
A nice alternative:
std::string_view ltrim(std::string_view s)
{
s.remove_prefix(std::distance(s.cbegin(), std::find_if(s.cbegin(), s.cend(),
[](int c) {return !std::isspace(c);})));
return s;
}
std::string_view rtrim(std::string_view s)
{
s.remove_suffix(std::distance(s.crbegin(), std::find_if(s.crbegin(), s.crend(),
[](int c) {return !std::isspace(c);})));
return s;
}
std::string_view trim(std::string_view s)
{
return ltrim(rtrim(s));
}
In the case of an empty string, your code assumes that adding 1 to string::npos gives 0. string::npos is of type string::size_type, which is unsigned. Thus, you are relying on the overflow behaviour of addition.
Hacked off of Cplusplus.com
std::string choppa(const std::string &t, const std::string &ws)
{
std::string str = t;
size_t found;
found = str.find_last_not_of(ws);
if (found != std::string::npos)
str.erase(found+1);
else
str.clear(); // str is all whitespace
return str;
}
This works for the null case as well. :-)
This is what I use. Just keep removing space from the front, and then, if there's anything left, do the same from the back.
void trim(string& s) {
while(s.compare(0,1," ")==0)
s.erase(s.begin()); // remove leading whitespaces
while(s.size()>0 && s.compare(s.size()-1,1," ")==0)
s.erase(s.end()-1); // remove trailing whitespaces
}
I guess if you start asking for the "best way" to trim a string, I'd say a good implementation would be one that:
Obviously there are too many different ways to approach this and it definitely depends on what you actually need. However, the C standard library still has some very useful functions in <string.h>, like memchr. There's a reason why C is still regarded as the best language for IO - its stdlib is pure efficiency.
inline const char* trim_start(const char* str)
{
while (memchr(" \t\n\r", *str, 4)) ++str;
return str;
}
inline const char* trim_end(const char* end)
{
while (memchr(" \t\n\r", end[-1], 4)) --end;
return end;
}
inline std::string trim(const char* buffer, int len) // trim a buffer (input?)
{
return std::string(trim_start(buffer), trim_end(buffer + len));
}
inline void trim_inplace(std::string& str)
{
str.assign(trim_start(str.c_str()),
trim_end(str.c_str() + str.length()));
}
int main()
{
char str [] = "\t \nhello\r \t \n";
string trimmed = trim(str, strlen(str));
cout << "'" << trimmed << "'" << endl;
system("pause");
return 0;
}
Here is a solution for trim with regex
#include <string>
#include <regex>
string trim(string str){
return regex_replace(str, regex("(^[ ]+)|([ ]+$)"),"");
}
str.erase(0, str.find_first_not_of("\t\n\v\f\r ")); // left trim
str.erase(str.find_last_not_of("\t\n\v\f\r ") + 1); // right trim
I'm not sure if your environment is the same, but in mine, the empty string case will cause the program to abort. I would either wrap that erase call with an if(!s.empty()) or use Boost as already mentioned.
Ok this maight not be the fastest but it's... simple.
str = " aaa ";
int len = str.length();
// rtrim
while(str[len-1] == ' ') { str.erase(--len,1); }
// ltrim
while(str[0] == ' ') { str.erase(0,1); }
you can you use this function to trim you string in c++
void trim(string& str){
while(str[0] == ' ') str.erase(str.begin());
while(str[str.size() - 1] == ' ') str.pop_back();
}
std::string trim( std::string && str )
{
size_t end = str.find_last_not_of( " \n\r\t" );
if ( end != std::string::npos )
str.resize( end + 1 );
size_t start = str.find_first_not_of( " \n\r\t" );
if ( start != std::string::npos )
str = str.substr( start );
return std::move( str );
}
I know this is a very old question, but I have added a few lines of code to yours and it trims whitespace from both ends.
void trim(std::string &line){
auto val = line.find_last_not_of(" \n\r\t") + 1;
if(val == line.size() || val == std::string::npos){
val = line.find_first_not_of(" \n\r\t");
line = line.substr(val);
}
else
line.erase(val);
}
Below is one pass(may be two pass) solution. It goes over the white spaces part of string twice and non-whitespace part once.
void trim(std::string& s) {
if (s.empty())
return;
int l = 0, r = s.size() - 1;
while (l < s.size() && std::isspace(s[l++])); // l points to first non-whitespace char.
while (r >= 0 && std::isspace(s[r--])); // r points to last non-whitespace char.
if (l > r)
s = "";
else {
l--;
r++;
int wi = 0;
while (l <= r)
s[wi++] = s[l++];
s.erase(wi);
}
return;
}
The accepted answer and even Boost's version did not work for me, so I wrote the following version:
std::string trim(const std::string& input) {
std::stringstream string_stream;
for (const auto character : input) {
if (!isspace(character)) {
string_stream << character;
}
}
return string_stream.str();
}
This will remove any whitespace character from anywhere in the string and return a new copy of the string.
I have read most of the answers but did not found anyone making use of istringstream
std::string text = "Let me split this into words";
std::istringstream iss(text);
std::vector<std::string> results((std::istream_iterator<std::string>(iss)),
std::istream_iterator<std::string>());
The result is vector of words and it can deal with the strings having internal whitespace too, Hope this helped.
why not use lambda?
auto no_space = [](char ch) -> bool {
return !std::isspace<char>(ch, std::locale::classic());
};
auto ltrim = [](std::string& s) -> std::string& {
s.erase(s.begin(), std::find_if(s.begin(), s.end(), no_space));
return s;
};
auto rtrim = [](std::string& s) -> std::string& {
s.erase(std::find_if(s.rbegin(), s.rend(), no_space).base(), s.end());
return s;
};
auto trim_copy = [](std::string s) -> std::string& { return ltrim(rtrim(s)); };
auto trim = [](std::string& s) -> std::string& { return ltrim(rtrim(s)); };
Trims both ends.
string trim(const std::string &str){
string result = "";
size_t endIndex = str.size();
while (endIndex > 0 && isblank(str[endIndex-1]))
endIndex -= 1;
for (size_t i=0; i<endIndex ; i+=1){
char ch = str[i];
if (!isblank(ch) || result.size()>0)
result += ch;
}
return result;
}
Poor man's string trim (spaces only):
std::string trimSpaces(const std::string& str)
{
int start, len;
for (start = 0; start < str.size() && str[start] == ' '; start++);
for (len = str.size() - start; len > 0 && str[start + len - 1] == ' '; len--);
return str.substr(start, len);
}
using std::find_if_not and reverse iterator (no +1/-1 adjustments) and returning number of spaces trimmed
// returns number of spaces removed
std::size_t RoundTrim(std::string& s)
{
auto const beforeTrim{ s.size() };
auto isSpace{ [](auto const& e) { return std::isspace(e); } };
s.erase(cbegin(s), std::find_if_not(cbegin(s), cend(s), isSpace));
s.erase(std::find_if_not(crbegin(s), crend(s), isSpace).base(), end(s));
return beforeTrim - s.size();
};
I think using a macro is a good practice in this example: (works on C++ 98)
#define TRIM_CHARACTERS " \t\n\r\f\v"
#define TRIM_STRING(given) \
given.erase(given.find_last_not_of(TRIM_CHARACTERS) + 1); \
given.erase(0, given.find_first_not_of(TRIM_CHARACTERS));
example:
#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#define TRIM_CHARACTERS " \t\n\r\f\v"
#define TRIM_STRING(given) \
given.erase(given.find_last_not_of(TRIM_CHARACTERS) + 1); \
given.erase(0, given.find_first_not_of(TRIM_CHARACTERS));
int main(void) {
std::string text(" hello world!! \t \r");
TRIM_STRING(text);
std::cout << text; // "hello world!!"
}
It is so annoying that I
For me this is the fastest way to solve it:
CString tmp(line.c_str());
tmp = tmp.Trim().MakeLower();
string buffer = tmp;
Ok, it is cool that I can use lambda ops, iterators, and all the stuff. But I only need to deal with a string instead of a character...