MySQL LTRIM() Function

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn how to use the LTRIM() function to remove all leading spaces of a string.

MySQL LTRIM() function overview

The LTRIM() function takes a string argument and returns a new string with all the leading space characters removed.

The following illustrates the syntax of the LTRIM() function:

LTRIM(str)Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

In this syntax, the str argument is the string that you want to remove all the leading spaces.

If the str is NULL, the LTRIM() function returns NULL.

Note that to remove the trailing spaces from a string, you use the RTRIM() function. To remove both leading and trailing spaces from a string, you use the TRIM() function.

MySQL LTRIM() function examples

Let’s see some examples of using the LTRIM() function.

1) Using LTRIM() function with a literal string

The following statement uses the LTRIM() function to remove all leading spaces of the string ' MySQL Tutorial':

SELECT 
    LTRIM('   MySQL Tutorial') result;
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Here is the output:

+----------------+
| result         |
+----------------+
| MySQL Tutorial |
+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

2) Using LTRIM() function to update data in a table

We’ll use the customers table from the sample database for the demonstration:

The following query uses the LTRIM() function to remove all leading spaces of the addresses in the addressLine1 column of the customers table.

UPDATE
    customers
SET 
    addressLine1 = LTRIM(addressLine1);Code language: SQL (Structured Query Language) (sql)

Summary

• Use the LTRIM() function to remove all the leading spaces of a string.