How to strip all whitespace from string

Remove the Starting Spaces in Python

string1 = "    This is Test String to strip leading space"
print(string1)
print(string1.lstrip())

Remove the Trailing or End Spaces in Python

string2 = "This is Test String to strip trailing space     "
print(string2)
print(string2.rstrip())

Remove the whiteSpaces from Beginning and end of the string in Python

string3 = "    This is Test String to strip leading and trailing space      "
print(string3)
print(string3.strip())

Remove all the spaces in python

string4 = "   This is Test String to test all the spaces        "
print(string4)
print(string4.replace(" ", ""))

As mentioned by Roger Pate following code worked for me:

s = " \t foo \n bar "
"".join(s.split())
'foobar'

I am using Jupyter Notebook to run following code:

i=0
ProductList=[]
while i < len(new_list): 
   temp=''                            # new_list[i]=temp=' Plain   Utthapam  '
   #temp=new_list[i].strip()          #if we want o/p as: 'Plain Utthapam'
   temp="".join(new_list[i].split())  #o/p: 'PlainUtthapam' 
   temp=temp.upper()                  #o/p:'PLAINUTTHAPAM' 
   ProductList.append(temp)
   i=i+2

import re
re.sub(' ','','strip my spaces')

The standard techniques to filter a list apply, although they are not as efficient as the split/join or translate methods.

We need a set of whitespaces:

>>> import string
>>> ws = set(string.whitespace)

The filter builtin:

>>> "".join(filter(lambda c: c not in ws, "strip my spaces"))
'stripmyspaces'

A list comprehension (yes, use the brackets: see benchmark below):

>>> import string
>>> "".join([c for c in "strip my spaces" if c not in ws])
'stripmyspaces'

A fold:

>>> import functools
>>> "".join(functools.reduce(lambda acc, c: acc if c in ws else acc+c, "strip my spaces"))
'stripmyspaces'

Benchmark:

>>> from timeit import timeit
>>> timeit('"".join("strip my spaces".split())')
0.17734256500003198
>>> timeit('"strip my spaces".translate(ws_dict)', 'import string; ws_dict = {ord(ws):None for ws in string.whitespace}')
0.457635745999994
>>> timeit('re.sub(r"\s+", "", "strip my spaces")', 'import re')
1.017787621000025

>>> SETUP = 'import string, operator, functools, itertools; ws = set(string.whitespace)'
>>> timeit('"".join([c for c in "strip my spaces" if c not in ws])', SETUP)
0.6484303600000203
>>> timeit('"".join(c for c in "strip my spaces" if c not in ws)', SETUP)
0.950212219999969
>>> timeit('"".join(filter(lambda c: c not in ws, "strip my spaces"))', SETUP)
1.3164566040000523
>>> timeit('"".join(functools.reduce(lambda acc, c: acc if c in ws else acc+c, "strip my spaces"))', SETUP)
1.6947649049999995

1. Parce your string to separate words
2. Strip white spaces on both sides
3. Join them with single space in the end

Final line of code:

' '.join(word.strip() for word in message_text.split()

If optimal performance is not a requirement and you just want something dead simple, you can define a basic function to test each character using the string class's built in "isspace" method:

def remove_space(input_string):
    no_white_space = ''
    for c in input_string:
        if not c.isspace():
            no_white_space += c
    return no_white_space

Building the no_white_space string this way will not have ideal performance, but the solution is easy to understand.

>>> remove_space('strip my spaces')
'stripmyspaces'

If you don't want to define a function, you can convert this into something vaguely similar with list comprehension. Borrowing from the top answer's join solution:

>>> "".join([c for c in "strip my spaces" if not c.isspace()])
'stripmyspaces'

TL/DR

This solution was tested using Python 3.6

To strip all spaces from a string in Python3 you can use the following function:

def remove_spaces(in_string: str):
    return in_string.translate(str.maketrans({' ': ''})

To remove any whitespace characters (' \t\n\r\x0b\x0c') you can use the following function:

import string
def remove_whitespace(in_string: str):
    return in_string.translate(str.maketrans(dict.fromkeys(string.whitespace)))

Explanation

Python's str.translate method is a built-in class method of str, it takes a table and returns a copy of the string with each character mapped through the passed translation table. Full documentation for str.translate

To create the translation table str.maketrans is used. This method is another built-in class method of str. Here we use it with only one parameter, in this case a dictionary, where the keys are the characters to be replaced mapped to values with the characters replacement value. It returns a translation table for use with str.translate. Full documentation for str.maketrans

The string module in python contains some common string operations and constants. string.whitespace is a constant which returns a string containing all ASCII characters that are considered whitespace. This includes the characters space, tab, linefeed, return, formfeed, and vertical tab.Full documentation for string

In the second function dict.fromkeys is used to create a dictionary where the keys are the characters in the string returned by string.whitespace each with value None. Full documentation for dict.fromkeys

Here's another way using plain old list comprehension:

''.join([c for c in aString if c not in [' ','\t','\n']])

Example:

>>> aStr = 'aaa\nbbb\t\t\tccc  '
>>> print(aString)
aaa
bbb         ccc

>>> ''.join([c for c in aString if c not in [' ','\t','\n']])
'aaabbbccc'