SQL TRIM

Removes leading and trailing whitespace — but leaves any whitespace INSIDE the string completely untouched.

What & Why

TRIM(text) strips whitespace from both ends of a string, leaving the interior exactly as it was. This is a genuinely important distinction: TRIM fixes leading/trailing spaces, but does nothing about multiple spaces sitting between words in the middle.

See How It Works

BUSINESS QUESTION

Marketing wants to remove edge padding from campaign labels while proving that TRIM leaves repeated spaces inside a name untouched.

id	name	channel	spend	start_date	end_date	status	target_segment
1	Spring Launch	google_ads	55000.00	2024-01-15	2024-03-31	active	smb
2	Retention Webinar	email	45000.00	2024-02-10	2024-04-15	active	enterprise
3	Finance Retargeting	linkedin	50000.00	2024-03-12	2024-05-31	active	enterprise
4	Enterprise Search	google_ads	60000.00	2024-04-01	2024-06-30	active	enterprise

Watch TRIM fix the edges but preserve internal spacesExample 1 of 4

TRIM(' ' || REPLACE(name, ' ', ' ') || ' ')

id	name	padded_name	trimmed_name
1	Spring Launch	[ Spring Launch ]	[Spring Launch]
2	Retention Webinar	?	?
3	Finance Retargeting	?	?
4	Enterprise Search	?	?

TRIM removes Spring Launch's edge padding while the three internal spaces remain.

EXAMPLE QUERY

SELECT
  id,
  name,
  '[' || '  ' || REPLACE(name, ' ', '   ') || '  ' || ']' AS padded_name,
  '[' || TRIM('  ' || REPLACE(name, ' ', '   ') || '  ') || ']' AS trimmed_name
FROM marketing.campaigns
ORDER BY id;

Intermediate business practice