$trimSpace — Trim Whitespace

$trimSpace strips leading and trailing whitespace characters from a string. Internal whitespace (between words) is preserved. This is essential for cleaning user input and normalizing data.

Syntax

$trimSpace[text]

Parameters

• text (string, required) — The string to trim.

Return Value

• Type: string
• Returns the text with all leading and trailing whitespace removed.
• Whitespace includes: spaces, tabs (\t), newlines (\n), and carriage returns (\r).

Usage

$trimSpace[  hello  ]        → "hello"
$trimSpace[  foo bar  ]      → "foo bar"
$trimSpace[\n  text\n]       → "text"
$trimSpace[   ]              → "" (empty string)
$trimSpace[$message]         → user input with no accidental spacing

Common Patterns

Sanitizing User Input

$var[clean;$trimSpace[$message]]
$if[$var[clean]==]
  $sendMessage[Please type something!]
$endif

Cleaning Variable Values

$setUserVar[name;$trimSpace[$message]]

Prevents storing " John " when the user types extra spaces.

Before Validation

$var[input;$trimSpace[$toLowercase[$message]]]
$if[$var[input]==!help]
 ...show help...
$endif

Important Notes

• Preserves internal spaces: Only leading and trailing whitespace is removed. "hello world" stays "hello world".
• Empty result: If the text is all whitespace, returns an empty string.
• Often combined: Use $trimSpace with $toLowercase for robust input normalization.