ltrim-transact-sql.md

---

title: "LTRIM (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs" ms.custom: "" ms.date: "02/27/2017" ms.prod: "sql" ms.prod_service: "database-engine, sql-database, sql-data-warehouse, pdw" ms.service: "" ms.component: "t-sql|functions" ms.reviewer: "" ms.suite: "sql" ms.technology:

• "database-engine" ms.tgt_pltfrm: "" 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]" ms.assetid: 369ed340-1a09-4597-a9eb-6720156cd39a caps.latest.revision: 36 author: "edmacauley" ms.author: "edmaca" manager: "craigg" ms.workload: "Active" monikerRange: ">= aps-pdw-2016 || = azuresqldb-current || = azure-sqldw-latest || >= sql-server-2016 || = sqlallproducts-allversions"

---

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

LEFT (Transact-SQL)
RIGHT (Transact-SQL)
RTRIM (Transact-SQL)
STRING_SPLIT (Transact-SQL)
SUBSTRING (Transact-SQL)
TRIM (Transact-SQL)
Data Types (Transact-SQL)
String Functions (Transact-SQL)