What's the best way to trim std::string?

Question

I\'m currently using the following code to right-trim all the std::strings in my programs:

std::string s;
s.erase(s.find_last_not_of(\" \\n\\r\\         


        

Answer 1

I'm not sure if your environment is the same, but in mine, the empty string case will cause the program to abort. I would either wrap that erase call with an if(!s.empty()) or use Boost as already mentioned.

Answer 2

An elegant way of doing it can be like

std::string & trim(std::string & str)
{
   return ltrim(rtrim(str));
}

And the supportive functions are implemented as:

std::string & ltrim(std::string & str)
{
  auto it =  std::find_if( str.begin() , str.end() , [](char ch){ return !std::isspace<char>(ch , std::locale::classic() ) ; } );
  str.erase( str.begin() , it);
  return str;   
}

std::string & rtrim(std::string & str)
{
  auto it =  std::find_if( str.rbegin() , str.rend() , [](char ch){ return !std::isspace<char>(ch , std::locale::classic() ) ; } );
  str.erase( it.base() , str.end() );
  return str;   
}

And once you've all these in place, you can write this as well:

std::string trim_copy(std::string const & str)
{
   auto s = str;
   return ltrim(rtrim(s));
}

Answer 3

In the case of an empty string, your code assumes that adding 1 to string::npos gives 0. string::npos is of type string::size_type, which is unsigned. Thus, you are relying on the overflow behaviour of addition.

Answer 4

Here's a solution easy to understand for beginners not used to write std:: everywhere and not yet familiar with const-correctness, iterators, STL algorithms, etc...

#include <string>
#include <cctype> // for isspace
using namespace std;


// Left trim the given string ("  hello!  " --> "hello!  ")
string left_trim(string str) {
    int numStartSpaces = 0;
    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
        if (!isspace(str[i])) break;
        numStartSpaces++;
    }
    return str.substr(numStartSpaces);
}

// Right trim the given string ("  hello!  " --> "  hello!")
string right_trim(string str) {
    int numEndSpaces = 0;
    for (int i = str.length() - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        if (!isspace(str[i])) break;
        numEndSpaces++;
    }
    return str.substr(0, str.length() - numEndSpaces);
}

// Left and right trim the given string ("  hello!  " --> "hello!")
string trim(string str) {
    return right_trim(left_trim(str));
}

Hope it helps...

Answer 5

Bit late to the party, but never mind. Now C++11 is here, we have lambdas and auto variables. So my version, which also handles all-whitespace and empty strings, is:

#include <cctype>
#include <string>
#include <algorithm>

inline std::string trim(const std::string &s)
{
   auto wsfront=std::find_if_not(s.begin(),s.end(),[](int c){return std::isspace(c);});
   auto wsback=std::find_if_not(s.rbegin(),s.rend(),[](int c){return std::isspace(c);}).base();
   return (wsback<=wsfront ? std::string() : std::string(wsfront,wsback));
}

We could make a reverse iterator from wsfront and use that as the termination condition in the second find_if_not but that's only useful in the case of an all-whitespace string, and gcc 4.8 at least isn't smart enough to infer the type of the reverse iterator (std::string::const_reverse_iterator) with auto. I don't know how expensive constructing a reverse iterator is, so YMMV here. With this alteration, the code looks like this:

inline std::string trim(const std::string &s)
{
   auto  wsfront=std::find_if_not(s.begin(),s.end(),[](int c){return std::isspace(c);});
   return std::string(wsfront,std::find_if_not(s.rbegin(),std::string::const_reverse_iterator(wsfront),[](int c){return std::isspace(c);}).base());
}

Answer 6

Contributing my solution to the noise. trim defaults to creating a new string and returning the modified one while trim_in_place modifies the string passed to it. The trim function supports c++11 move semantics.

#include <string>

// modifies input string, returns input

std::string& trim_left_in_place(std::string& str) {
    size_t i = 0;
    while(i < str.size() && isspace(str[i])) { ++i; };
    return str.erase(0, i);
}

std::string& trim_right_in_place(std::string& str) {
    size_t i = str.size();
    while(i > 0 && isspace(str[i - 1])) { --i; };
    return str.erase(i, str.size());
}

std::string& trim_in_place(std::string& str) {
    return trim_left_in_place(trim_right_in_place(str));
}

// returns newly created strings

std::string trim_right(std::string str) {
    return trim_right_in_place(str);
}

std::string trim_left(std::string str) {
    return trim_left_in_place(str);
}

std::string trim(std::string str) {
    return trim_left_in_place(trim_right_in_place(str));
}

#include <cassert>

int main() {

    std::string s1(" \t\r\n  ");
    std::string s2("  \r\nc");
    std::string s3("c \t");
    std::string s4("  \rc ");

    assert(trim(s1) == "");
    assert(trim(s2) == "c");
    assert(trim(s3) == "c");
    assert(trim(s4) == "c");

    assert(s1 == " \t\r\n  ");
    assert(s2 == "  \r\nc");
    assert(s3 == "c \t");
    assert(s4 == "  \rc ");

    assert(trim_in_place(s1) == "");
    assert(trim_in_place(s2) == "c");
    assert(trim_in_place(s3) == "c");
    assert(trim_in_place(s4) == "c");

    assert(s1 == "");
    assert(s2 == "c");
    assert(s3 == "c");
    assert(s4 == "c");  
}