Does MATLAB have a strip function for strings? - string

Question

Is there a simple function f such that
f(' hello, world! ' ) == 'hello, world!'
I can strip out the spaces (or any character for that matter) using regexes, but this seems like applying a hammer to the problem. I'd just like to know if there is something simple which I've missed.

Answer 1

No need to use a hammer, simply use strtrim.
From the documentation:
S = strtrim(str) returns a copy of string str with all leading and
trailing white-space characters removed. A white-space character is
one for which the isspace function returns logical 1 (true).

Answer 2

To remove the spaces on the side of the string, use the strtrim command.

Answer 3

Since Matlab version 2016b, you can use the built-in strip() function.
For those who do not have the newer matlab version, here is my self-defined function, which also does not have the limitation of exact one char when strCharacter is passed in as strip()
function result = trim(s,varargin)
% Merge multiple spaces to single space in the middle
% remove trailing/leading spaces
% trim(s [, how [,chars]])
% s: a string
% how: a num 1=left only;
% 2=right only;
% 3=left and right;
% 4 (default)=left and right and merge middle
% chars: if not given (default), space
% if given, remove consecutive character instead
%
if nargin == 1
how = 4;
chars = ' ';
elseif nargin == 2
how = varargin{1};
chars = ' ';
elseif nargin == 3
how = varargin{1};
chars = varargin{2};
end % end if nargin
if strcmp(chars,' '), chars='\s'; end
if how==1
expression = sprintf('^(%s)+',chars);
elseif how==2
expression = sprintf('(%s)+$',chars);
elseif how==3
expression = sprintf('^(%s)+|(%s)+$',chars,chars);
elseif how==4
expression = sprintf('(?<=[(%s)])(%s)*|^(%s)+|(%s)+$',chars,chars,chars,chars);
end % end if how
result = regexprep(s, expression, '');
end