Trimming Spaces from Strings

Summary: When processing text with a macro, you often need to remove extraneous spaces from the text. VBA provides three handy functions to remove those leading or trailing spaces easily. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

It is often necessary to trim spaces off of strings when programming in VBA. For instance, let's say you used the InputBox function to get some user input. The function returns a string, but you find out that the user hit the space bar a few times before typing a response. Thus, you end up with a string such as " My String," complete with leading spaces.

Fortunately, VBA provides several different functions to remove spaces from a string. The following are the three functions you would use:

MyVar = LTrim(MyVar)
MyVar = RTrim(MyVar)
MyVar = Trim(MyVar)

The first example ends up trimming all the spaces from the left end of the string, the second removes them from the right end, and the third removes them from both ends. You can use the function that you feel best fits your programming needs.

Tip #805 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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