Table of Contents for

MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

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

UPDATE students
SET name_last = RTRIM(name_last);

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