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
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ms.technology	t-sql
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
author	markingmyname
ms.author	maghan
monikerRange	>=aps-pdw-2016||=azuresqldb-current||=azure-sqldw-latest||>=sql-server-2016||=sqlallproducts-allversions||>=sql-server-linux-2017||=azuresqldb-mi-current

LTRIM (Transact-SQL)

[!INCLUDE sql-asdb-asdbmi-asa-pdw]

Returns a character expression after it removes leading blanks.

Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions

Syntax

LTRIM ( character_expression )  

[!INCLUDEsql-server-tsql-previous-offline-documentation]

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)