LTRIM (Transact-SQL)
Returns a character expression after it removes leading blanks.
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
Remarks
Compatibility levels can affect return values. For more information about compatibility levels, see sp_dbcmptlevel (Transact-SQL).
Examples
The following example uses LTRIM to remove leading spaces from a character variable.
DECLARE @string_to_trim varchar(60)
SET @string_to_trim = ' Five spaces are at the beginning of this
string.'
SELECT 'Here is the string without the leading spaces: ' +
LTRIM(@string_to_trim)
GO
Here is the result set.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the string without the leading spaces: Five spaces are at the beginning of this string.
(1 row(s) affected)