Remove Whitespace Online
This example demonstrates whitespace cleanup from String Tools, pre-loaded with text containing leading, trailing, and extra spaces. Paste any text and clean up formatting issues instantly.
How It Works
The tool processes your text line by line, removing unwanted whitespace. Each line is trimmed independently, so leading spaces on one line do not affect others. The result is clean, consistently formatted text.
Trim Left vs Trim Right vs Trim Both
| Mode | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Trim Left | Removes leading spaces and tabs from each line |
| Trim Right | Removes trailing spaces and tabs from each line |
| Trim Both | Removes both leading and trailing whitespace |
| Collapse Spaces | Reduces consecutive spaces within a line to a single space |
Common Whitespace Issues
Invisible whitespace characters cause problems that are hard to detect:
- Trailing spaces at the end of lines break some parsers and diff tools
- Tabs mixed with spaces create inconsistent indentation in code
- Multiple spaces between words look wrong in rendered output
- Leading spaces cause unexpected indentation in markdown or text
Cleaning Copy-Pasted Text
When copying text from PDFs, websites, or word processors, invisible characters often sneak in: non-breaking spaces, zero-width spaces, and soft hyphens. The tool handles standard whitespace. For exotic Unicode whitespace, use the find-and-replace tool with a regex character class targeting specific Unicode ranges.
How to Use
- Paste your text into the input area
- Select the trim mode (left, right, both, or collapse spaces)
- The cleaned output appears in the result area
- Copy the cleaned text using the copy button
Common Questions
Does this affect code indentation?
If you trim leading whitespace from code, indentation is removed. Use the trim-right option for code to preserve indentation while removing trailing spaces. For mixed indentation issues, a proper code formatter is more appropriate.
Can I remove only extra spaces between words?
Yes. Select the collapse-spaces option to reduce multiple consecutive spaces to a single space. This preserves single spaces while eliminating runs of two or more spaces. It does not affect leading or trailing whitespace unless combined with a trim mode.
How does this handle tab characters?
Tabs at the beginning of lines are treated as leading whitespace and removed in trim-left mode. Tabs between words are preserved as single characters. To convert tabs to spaces first, use the find-and-replace tool with tab matching.