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Use the trim_space function in APL to remove leading and trailing whitespace characters from a string. This function is especially useful when cleaning up input from logs, APIs, or user-generated content where strings may contain unintended spaces. You can apply trim_space to normalize data before comparisons, joins, or aggregations that depend on exact string matches. Use trim_space when you need to ensure that extraneous spaces at the beginning or end of a string don’t interfere with your analysis or results.

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For users of other query languages

If you come from other query languages, this section explains how to adjust your existing queries to achieve the same results in APL.
In Splunk, the trim function removes leading and trailing spaces. APL’s trim_space works similarly.
| eval cleaned_field = trim(uri)
In ANSI SQL, the TRIM() function removes leading and trailing whitespace by default. APL’s trim_space achieves the same behavior.
SELECT TRIM(uri) AS cleaned_uri FROM sample_http_logs

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Usage

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Syntax

trim_space(value)

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Parameters

NameTypeDescription
valuestringThe input string to trim.

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Returns

A string with all leading and trailing whitespace removed. The function does not modify internal whitespace.

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Use case examples

  • Log analysis
  • OpenTelemetry traces
When analyzing request URIs from logs, trailing or leading spaces can lead to false negatives in equality comparisons. Use trim_space to normalize request paths.Query
['sample-http-logs']
| extend cleaned_uri = trim_space(uri)
| summarize count() by cleaned_uri
Run in PlaygroundOutput
cleaned_uricount
/api/data120
/api/data/submit88
/login42
This query removes leading and trailing spaces from each uri and aggregates request counts by the cleaned path.