How do I trim leading/trailing whitespace in a sta

Question

Is there a clean, preferably standard method of trimming leading and trailing whitespace from a string in C? I'd roll my own, but I would think this is a common problem with an equally common solution.

Answer 1

Here's one that shifts the string into the first position of your buffer. You might want this behavior so that if you dynamically allocated the string, you can still free it on the same pointer that trim() returns:

char *trim(char *str)
{
    size_t len = 0;
    char *frontp = str;
    char *endp = NULL;

    if( str == NULL ) { return NULL; }
    if( str[0] == '\0' ) { return str; }

    len = strlen(str);
    endp = str + len;

    /* Move the front and back pointers to address the first non-whitespace
     * characters from each end.
     */
    while( isspace((unsigned char) *frontp) ) { ++frontp; }
    if( endp != frontp )
    {
        while( isspace((unsigned char) *(--endp)) && endp != frontp ) {}
    }

    if( str + len - 1 != endp )
            *(endp + 1) = '\0';
    else if( frontp != str &&  endp == frontp )
            *str = '\0';

    /* Shift the string so that it starts at str so that if it's dynamically
     * allocated, we can still free it on the returned pointer.  Note the reuse
     * of endp to mean the front of the string buffer now.
     */
    endp = str;
    if( frontp != str )
    {
            while( *frontp ) { *endp++ = *frontp++; }
            *endp = '\0';
    }


    return str;
}

Test for correctness:

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char *sample_strings[] =
    {
            "nothing to trim",
            "    trim the front",
            "trim the back     ",
            " trim one char front and back ",
            " trim one char front",
            "trim one char back ",
            "                   ",
            " ",
            "a",
            "",
            NULL
    };
    char test_buffer[64];
    int index;

    for( index = 0; sample_strings[index] != NULL; ++index )
    {
            strcpy( test_buffer, sample_strings[index] );
            printf("[%s] -> [%s]\n", sample_strings[index],
                                     trim(test_buffer));
    }

    /* The test prints the following:
    [nothing to trim] -> [nothing to trim]
    [    trim the front] -> [trim the front]
    [trim the back     ] -> [trim the back]
    [ trim one char front and back ] -> [trim one char front and back]
    [ trim one char front] -> [trim one char front]
    [trim one char back ] -> [trim one char back]
    [                   ] -> []
    [ ] -> []
    [a] -> [a]
    [] -> []
    */

    return 0;
}

Source file was trim.c. Compiled with 'cc trim.c -o trim'.

Answer 2

Here is my attempt at a simple, yet correct in-place trim function.

void trim(char *str)
{
    int i;
    int begin = 0;
    int end = strlen(str) - 1;

    while (isspace((unsigned char) str[begin]))
        begin++;

    while ((end >= begin) && isspace((unsigned char) str[end]))
        end--;

    // Shift all characters back to the start of the string array.
    for (i = begin; i <= end; i++)
        str[i - begin] = str[i];

    str[i - begin] = '\0'; // Null terminate string.
}

Answer 3

My solution. String must be changeable. The advantage above some of the other solutions that it moves the non-space part to the beginning so you can keep using the old pointer, in case you have to free() it later.

void trim(char * s) {
    char * p = s;
    int l = strlen(p);

    while(isspace(p[l - 1])) p[--l] = 0;
    while(* p && isspace(* p)) ++p, --l;

    memmove(s, p, l + 1);
}   

This version creates a copy of the string with strndup() instead of editing it in place. strndup() requires _GNU_SOURCE, so maybe you need to make your own strndup() with malloc() and strncpy().

char * trim(char * s) {
    int l = strlen(s);

    while(isspace(s[l - 1])) --l;
    while(* s && isspace(* s)) ++s, --l;

    return strndup(s, l);
}

Answer 4

Just to keep this growing, one more option with a modifiable string:

void trimString(char *string)
{
    size_t i = 0, j = strlen(string);
    while (j > 0 && isspace((unsigned char)string[j - 1])) string[--j] = '\0';
    while (isspace((unsigned char)string[i])) i++;
    if (i > 0) memmove(string, string + i, j - i + 1);
}

Answer 5

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "malloc.h"
#include "string.h"

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{

  char *ptr = (char*)malloc(sizeof(char)*30);
  strcpy(ptr,"            Hel  lo    wo           rl   d G    eo rocks!!!    by shahil    sucks b i          g       tim           e");

  int i = 0, j = 0;

  while(ptr[j]!='\0')
  {

      if(ptr[j] == ' ' )
      {
          j++;
          ptr[i] = ptr[j];
      }
      else
      {
          i++;
          j++;
          ptr[i] = ptr[j];
      }
  }


  printf("\noutput-%s\n",ptr);
        return 0;
}

Answer 6

These functions will modify the original buffer, so if dynamically allocated, the original pointer can be freed.

#include <string.h>

void rstrip(char *string)
{
  int l;
  if (!string)
    return;
  l = strlen(string) - 1;
  while (isspace(string[l]) && l >= 0)
    string[l--] = 0;
}

void lstrip(char *string)
{
  int i, l;
  if (!string)
    return;
  l = strlen(string);
  while (isspace(string[(i = 0)]))
    while(i++ < l)
      string[i-1] = string[i];
}

void strip(char *string)
{
  lstrip(string);
  rstrip(string);
}