Supertrim ( text )
Speedily (and with no recursion) remove leading and trailing white space (including spacing, non-breaking spaces, tabs, returns and line feeds) from a text string.
Average rating: 4.2 (51 votes) Log in to vote
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Debi Fuchs - Show more from this author
Aptworks Consulting http://www.aptworks.com |
Sample input:
Supertrim(" John ¶ Smith¶")
Sample output:
"John ¶ Smith"
Function definition: (Copy & paste into FileMaker's Edit Custom Function window)
CUSTOM FUNCTION: Supertrim ( text )
Written by Debi Fuchs of Aptworks Consulting
Speedily (and with no recursion) remove leading and trailing white space (including spacing, non-breaking spaces, tabs, returns, and line feeds) from a text string.
EXAMPLE:
Supertrim(" John ¶ Smith¶") // --> "John ¶ Smith"
LAST MODIFIED: 29-DEC-2024 by Debi Fuchs of Aptworks Consulting
Comments
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Gerold, Süstedt / Germany Sep 4, 2014 |
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| Hmm -- what happens if no leading whitespace exists? As far as I get it there ain't no output at all in this case?! Suggestion for the result: Case ( first_char ; Middle ( text ; first_char ; last_char - first_char + 1 ) ; last_Char < Length ( text ) ; Left ( text ; last_char ) ; text ) |
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Erik S., NYC Sep 19, 2014 |
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| Added removing Line Feeds: Let( [ // Determine value of original string with ALL whitespace removed. t2 = Substitute( text; [ " "; "" ]; [ " "; "" ]; [ " "; "" ]; [ "¶"; "" ]; [ char ( 10 ); "" ] ); // Determine position of first non-ws character in original string. first_char = Position( text; Left( t2; 1 ); 0; 1 ); // Determine position of last non-ww character in original string. last_char = Position( text; Right( t2; 1 ); Length( text ); -1 ) ]; // If any non-whitespace characters exist return appropriate // middle portion of original text. Case( first_char; Middle( text; first_char; last_char - first_char + 1 ) ) ) |
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Debi Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Sep 22, 2014 |
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| Gerold, You said: "Hmm -- what happens if no leading whitespace exists? As far as I get it there ain't no output at all in this case?!" Thanks for the feedback. This is not my experience. Would you mind providing an example? For me, the example: supertrim("test ¶ ") yields: test Best, Debi |
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Debi Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Sep 22, 2014 |
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| Thanks, Erik S.! I have modified the function, giving you credit for the mod! | ||
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Carl Starr, Los Ranchos Jan 28, 2015 |
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| Thanks for this function - It works great! I use it as an auto-enter calculation in user data entry fields: Supertrim ( Self ) |
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Stephen P, Perth, Western Australia Jul 20, 2015 |
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| Thanks for this fantastic function Debi. One of my users copied and pasted text from and html email into a field which supertrims by auto-enter calculation. It still had a lot of trailing spaces and would not trim. After investigating I found that non breaking spaces had been copied. I added [ Char(160); "" ] to the t2. Just in case that helps anyone else. |
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H, CHCH Nov 17, 2015 |
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| Fantastic! | ||
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Eric M., San Jose, CA Jan 24, 2016 |
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| It seems the result documented in the example comment is incorrect: EXAMPLE: Supertrim(" John Smith¶") // --> "John Smith¶" Should be: EXAMPLE: Supertrim(" John Smith¶") // --> "John Smith" Since it removes the last "¶". |
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GaryODS, Sacramento Sep 5, 2016 |
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| I've never written a custom function, so please forgive any oversights in this comment. If I drop the space removal from the Substitute function, and add the char(160) how is Supertrim faster or different from Trimall(Substitute( text; [ " "; "" ]; [char(160); "" ]; [ " "; "" ]; [ "¶"; "" ]; [ char(10); "" ] )) ? |
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Debi, Boston Sep 6, 2016 |
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| Gary, the Supertrim removes leading and trailing whitespace characters, touching nothing within the middle of the text, e.g. "ban" & Supertrim(" ¶anas¶sour cherries¶pe ¶") & "ears" = "bananas¶sour cherries¶pears". | ||
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Paolo Sep 30, 2016 |
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| good deal, thanks ! | ||
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Florence Haseltine, Alexandria,VA Jan 23, 2017 |
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| Great Custom Function. Especially when copy and pasting information from Web Sites. | ||
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Michael Rocharde, Golden, CO Nov 10, 2017 |
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| Absolutely invaluable. | ||
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nonio, lopuu Aug 9, 2020 |
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| Thanks for this function. Question: why is SPACE being substituted twice in t2? |
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Victor Hugo Alfaro Sequeira, Independiente Apr 11, 2021 |
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| Buena Tarde. Tengo un campo Texto que es generado por un guion y me da esta información: CL-180510 CL-199296 C-162179 RESULTADO DEBE SER: CL-180510, CL-199296, C-162179. USE EL SuperTrim(Text) Y NO ME LO HACE. Me podrÃa ayudar por favor. Gracias. Espero. |
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Debi Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Apr 14, 2021 |
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| Try this: Substitute( Text; "¶"; ", " ) | ||
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Daniel Mar 28, 2023 |
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| Regarding nonio's question: "why is SPACE being substituted twice in t2?" I see this as well. Perhaps all the quoted whitespace items should be replaced with a Char() function? I suspect there is something happening with web/browser/server character encoding. Maybe those are two different types of spaces, but they are *not* being presented as such on this website for me in Safari. Both of those quoted spaces evaluate to "32" when run through Code(). |
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Debi Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Dec 29, 2024 |
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| Thanks, Nonio and Daniel. The second space was originally a non-breaking space. I have substituted char(160) in it's place so it will appear correctly on the web site. | ||
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Debi Fuchs, Aptworks Consulting Dec 29, 2024 |
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| Apologies for a the grammer. I meant "its place" not "it's place"! | ||
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