# TRIM function
<a name="TRIM"></a>

Trims a string by removing leading and trailing blanks or by removing leading and trailing characters that match an optional specified string.

## Syntax
<a name="TRIM-synopsis"></a>

```
TRIM( [ BOTH ] [ trim_chars FROM ] string
```

## Arguments
<a name="TRIM-arguments"></a>

 *trim\$1chars*   
(Optional) The characters to be trimmed from the string. If this parameter is omitted, blanks are trimmed.

 *string*   
The string to be trimmed. 

## Return type
<a name="TRIM-return-type"></a>

The TRIM function returns a VARCHAR or CHAR string. If you use the TRIM function with a SQL command, AWS Clean Rooms implicitly converts the results to VARCHAR. If you use the TRIM function in the SELECT list for a SQL function, AWS Clean Rooms does not implicitly convert the results, and you might need to perform an explicit conversion to avoid a data type mismatch error. See the [CAST function](CAST_function.md) function for information about explicit conversions.

## Example
<a name="TRIM-example"></a>

The following example trims leading and trailing blanks from the string `' abc '`: 

```
select '     abc    ' as untrim, trim('     abc    ') as trim;

untrim    | trim
----------+------
   abc    | abc
```

The following example removes the double quotation marks that surround the string `"dog"`: 

```
select trim('"' FROM '"dog"');

btrim
-------
dog
```

TRIM removes any of the characters in *trim\$1chars* when they appear at the beginning of *string*. The following example trims the characters 'C', 'D', and 'G' when they appear at the beginning of VENUENAME, which is a VARCHAR column. 

```
select venueid, venuename, trim(venuename, 'CDG')
from venue
where venuename like '%Park'
order by 2
limit 7;             

venueid | venuename                  | btrim                    
--------+----------------------------+--------------------------
    121 | ATT Park                   | ATT Park                
    109 | Citizens Bank Park         | itizens Bank Park        
    102 | Comerica Park              | omerica Park             
      9 | Dick's Sporting Goods Park | ick's Sporting Goods Park
     97 | Fenway Park                | Fenway Park              
    112 | Great American Ball Park   | reat American Ball Park  
    114 | Miller Park                | Miller Park
```