TRIM()

Removes the space character or other specified characters from the start and end of a string.

Signature

TRIM ( [ characters FROM ] string )

Parameters

characters — A literal, variable, or function call of any non-LOB character type (nvarchar, varchar, nchar, or char) containing characters that should be removed. nvarchar(max) and varchar(max) types aren't allowed.
string — An expression of any character type (nvarchar, varchar, nchar, or char) where characters should be removed.

Examples

SELECT '[' + TRIM('   keyboard   ') + ']' AS trimmed;

trimmed
----------------
[keyboard]

SELECT TRIM( '     test    ') AS Result;

test

SELECT TRIM( '.,! ' FROM '     #     test    .') AS Result;

#     test

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Available on

SQL Server 2017 and later
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Microsoft Fabric warehouse
Fabric SQL database

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Signature and description adapted from the Microsoft SQL documentation, used under the CC BY 4.0. SQL Server and Azure are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. This page is not affiliated with Microsoft.