Table of Contents for

MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

This function returns the given string with any leading spaces removed. When used with an SQL statement such as UPDATE, rows that do not contain leading spaces will not be changed. This function is multibyte-safe. To trim trailing spaces, use RTRIM(). To trim both leading and trailing spaces, use TRIM(). Here is an example:

UPDATE students
SET name_last = LTRIM(name_last);

In this example, the last names of several students have been entered inadvertently with a space in front of the names. This SQL statement removes any leading spaces from each name retrieved that contains leading spaces and then writes the trimmed text over the existing data.