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# trimStart

> Use the trimStart task to remove whitespace from the beginning of a string.

The `trimStart` task removes whitespace at the beginning of a string.

## Potential use case

If you want to make sure no spaces remain at the beginning of any datasets in a string entry, use the `trimStart` task to find and remove them.

## Properties

| Incoming | Type   | Description                                     |
| -------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------------- |
| `str`    | String | Required. The string to remove whitespace from. |

| Outgoing       | Type   | Description                                                                                     |
| -------------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `trimmedStart` | String | A new string representing the input `str` stripped of whitespace from its beginning (left end). |

## Example

In this example, a **New Job Variable** is used to input data into the `trimStart` task, and the **New Variable Name** is "string". The new variable value is **Hello World**, with spaces at the beginning and end of the words.

![](/_fern-img/9d67b18b1b55845ddc7e782abdd571a5fae89b7635974803cf0ee4aaa7d5f0c1.webp)

Next, the `trimStart` task is used to reference **New Variable: String** within the reference task. The reference value is automatically set to accept the value from the task being used as an input.

![](/_fern-img/2ed989e91e5b81a86eb6b437a6cd5058d9466a057419895ee43e989345f31c8b.webp)

After running the job, notice that the incoming variable has spaces before and after the words **Hello World** as shown by the placement of the quotation marks.

![](/_fern-img/831703c3fcd67727d64d15176361a1f9acac57a71dd8c0545f97b11bfe577380.webp)

The `trimmedStart` variable upon output will be `"Hello World"` and the whitespace before the word "Hello" has been removed.

![](/_fern-img/f98536f6b510e3e060b63fe5dd5bd2bd4b80c313fb27600eee38196b5ade791d.webp)

> Use the trimStart task to remove whitespace from the beginning of a string.