Python String strip() Function

The String strip() method removes any whitespaces from the beginning (leading) and end (trailing) of the string by default.

note

You can also specify the characters you want to strip by specifying the chars parameter of the strip() method.

Syntax

my_string.strip(chars)

strip() Parameters

Python String strip() function parameters:

Parameter	Condition	Description
chars	optional	A string of characters to be removed from the string

note

If chars argument is not provided, all leading whitespaces are removed from the string.

strip() Return Value

Python String strip() function returns a copy of the string with leading and ending characters stripped.

All combinations of characters in the chars parameter are removed from both the beginning and the end of the string until the first mismatch.

Examples

Example 1: Strip Whitespaces with strip()

The strip() method allows to remove spaces from both the left side and the right side of a string, returning a new string.

my_str = "   Hello   "
result = my_str.strip()
print(f"'{result}'") # Output: 'Hello'

output

'Hello'

Note that newline \n, tab \t and carriage return \r are also considered whitespace characters!

my_str = " \t\n\r  Hello \t\n  "
result = my_str.strip()
print(f"'{result}'") # Output: 'Hello'

output

'Hello'

Example 2: Strip Characters with strip()

By specifying the chars parameter, you can also specify the character you want to strip.

my_str = "aaabbbaaa"
result = my_str.strip('a')
print(result) # Output: bbb 

output

bbb

note

Characters are removed from the beginning to the end until reaching a string character that is not contained in the set of characters in chars parameter. The same is also done from the end to the beginning of the string.

For example:

my_str = 'xxxxAxxxxAxxxx'
result = my_str.strip('x')
print(result) # Output: AxxxxA

output

AxxxxA

Example 3: Strip Multiple Characters with strip()

The chars parameter is not a prefix! All combinations of its values are stripped, until reaching a character of the string that is not contained in the set of characters in chars parameter.

For example, let's strip all the characters provided in the argument:

my_str = 'www.example.com'
result = my_str.strip('cmowz.')
print(result) # Output: example 

output

example