This page explains how to use the trim_space function in APL.
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.
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.Splunk SPL users
Splunk SPL users
In Splunk, the
trim function removes leading and trailing spaces. APL’s trim_space works similarly.ANSI SQL users
ANSI SQL users
In ANSI SQL, the
TRIM() function removes leading and trailing whitespace by default. APL’s trim_space achieves the same behavior.Usage
Syntax
Parameters
| Name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| value | string | The input string to trim. |
Returns
A string with all leading and trailing whitespace removed. The function does not modify internal whitespace.Use case examples
When analyzing request URIs from logs, trailing or leading spaces can lead to false negatives in equality comparisons. Use Run in PlaygroundOutput
This query removes leading and trailing spaces from each
trim_space to normalize request paths.Query| cleaned_uri | count |
|---|---|
| /api/data | 120 |
| /api/data/submit | 88 |
| /login | 42 |
uri and aggregates request counts by the cleaned path.