strip, lstrip, rstrip

Learn to remove edge whitespace with strip.

strip removes characters from both ends of a string. The default is whitespace:

"  hello  ".strip()    # "hello"
"--hello--".strip("-")  # "hello"

lstrip removes from the left, rstrip from the right. These methods are commonly used to clean up user input.

strip does not modify the original string; it returns a new one. Strings are immutable in Python, so this rule applies to all string methods.

lstrip vs rstrip

lstrip removes only from the left, rstrip only from the right:

"  hello  ".lstrip()  # "hello  "
"  hello  ".rstrip()  # "  hello"

This is useful when only one side needs cleaning. For example, rstrip is preferred to remove trailing spaces from a line.

All three methods return a new string; they do not change the original.

Assign " hello " to raw. Assign raw.strip() to clean. Then print print(clean).

Show example solution

raw = "  hello  "
clean = raw.strip()
print(clean)

Complete the strip call

clean = "  hello  ".____()

Show answer

clean = "  hello  ".strip()

Next lesson: replace