ltrim-transact-sql.md

title	LTRIM (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs
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ms.date	02/27/2017
ms.prod	sql-non-specified
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ms.technology	database-engine
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ms.topic	language-reference
f1_keywords	LTRIM LTRIM_TSQL
dev_langs	TSQL
helpviewer_keywords	leading blanks deleting blank spaces characters [SQL Server], blanks removing blank spaces LTRIM function blank characters [SQL Server]
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author	BYHAM
ms.author	rickbyh
manager	jhubbard

LTRIM (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDEtsql-appliesto-ss2008-all_md]

Returns a character expression after it removes leading blanks.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

LTRIM ( character_expression )  

Arguments

character_expression
Is an expression of character or binary data. character_expression can be a constant, variable, or column. character_expression must be of a data type, except text, ntext, and image, that is implicitly convertible to varchar. Otherwise, use CAST to explicitly convert character_expression.

Return Type

varchar or nvarchar

Examples

A. Simple example

The following example uses LTRIM to remove leading spaces from a character expression.

SELECT LTRIM('     Five spaces are at the beginning of this string.') FROM sys.databases;  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

---------------------------------------------------------------
Five spaces are at the beginning of this string.

B: Example using a variable

The following example uses LTRIM to remove leading spaces from a character variable.

DECLARE @string_to_trim varchar(60);  
SET @string_to_trim = '     5 spaces are at the beginning of this string.';  
SELECT 
    @string_to_trim AS 'Original string',
    LTRIM(@string_to_trim) AS 'Without spaces';  
GO  

[!INCLUDEssResult]

Original string	Without spaces
--------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------
     5 spaces are at the beginning of this string.	5 spaces are at the beginning of this string.

See Also

Data Types (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)