How do I trim whitespace from a string?

Cleanliness is next to godliness

Delving deeper, we realize .strip() can do more than just trimming whitespace. Give it a specific character as an argument:

"---Just a hyphen---".strip('-')  # "Just a hyphen", Strip magic!
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A single space you ask? Let's handle that:

def strip_one_space(s):
    if s.startswith(" "): s = s[1:]  # Bye first space!
    if s.endswith(" "): s = s[:-1]  # So-lon-ga-last-space!
    return s
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Stages of string trimming

The bare minimum

"   Basic trim   ".strip()  # "Basic trim", Ah, the classic!
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Skilled stripping

Signs, symbols just anything, throw at .strip() and let it handle:

"Serves, you; right!".strip(',;')  # "Serves, you; right", No comma, no semi-colon
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Hidden surprises

Even whitespace has spies tabs and newlines:

"\t\tLine with tabs\n".strip()  # "Line with tabs", Tabs can't tab anymore!
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Cleaning the mess

Your list is messy? No worries, strip() it along a loop:

clean_list = [s.strip() for s in list_of_strings]  # Aha, clean list
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Precision points to note

Punctuation only pass

Remove punctuations without affecting spaces:

"Hello, World!".strip('!,')  # "Hello, World", Punctuation ace!
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Let’s get nuance-y with lstrip() and rstrip():

"   This sentence is left intact.   ".lstrip().rstrip('.')  # "This sentence is left intact", Why change perfection?
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Not a regular space

Dealing with non-standard spaces (Unicode whitespace)? Behold:

import re
"

   Non-standard spaces

  ".strip()  # regexionist!
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Tips 'n tricks

The silent protector

The .strip() is a safe method; you can avoid the phobia of chopping off too much:

"One dot to rule them all...".strip('.')  # "One dot to rule them all"
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Saving your data

While using custom functions, ensure data protection:

if only_trimming_whitespace(data):
    # Let custom trim play
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